The Lalitpur Appellate Court has upheld the rights of Martina Joshi over the insurance of her husband, Captain Jay Krishna Joshi, who was killed in the Necon Air plane crash. Captain Joshi's mother Indu Joshi had filed a case at the Patan court claiming that she was entitled to half the insurance money. Earlier, Indu Joshi had also filed a case with the Kathmandu District Court, which had decided against her plea.
The legal confusion over the rights to Captain Joshi's insurance money seems to have arisen basically because of an administrative mistake on the part of Necon Air. The employment documents issued to Captain Joshi identify both his wife and mother as the beneficiaries of the total insurance money to be awarded in case of his death. Martina only learnt this after the death of her husband. In order to avoid the legal hassles, Necon Air suggested splitting the insurance sum in two. Martina refused, on the grounds that she had a child to raise, and that her husband had already legally broken ties with his immediate parental family before his death. To establish her claim over half the insurance money, Indu Joshi went to the Kathmandu District Court.
The Kathmandu District Court in August 2001 decided in favour of Martina, stating that since the legal documents at Necon Air identify Martina as the first beneficiary, she had legal right to all of it, and so any claim made by Indu Joshi was not valid. The Patan Appellate Court upheld the district court's verdict, and awarded her all of Captain Krishna Joshi's $30,000 insurance.