An Indiana man earlier this month filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis in an attempt to force the government and Prudential Life Insurance to pay a $10,000 claim for the stillborn fetus his wife delivered in April 2002, the AP/Louisville Courier-Journal reports. After Christine Warnock delivered the 38-week gestation stillborn fetus, her husband, Michael Warnock -- who was enrolled in the military's Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program, which covers members of the armed forces and their spouses and children -- filed a life insurance claim for the fetus. However, Prudential said that it would not pay the claim because a stillborn fetus is not defined as a "dependent child," according to the AP/Courier-Journal. The lawsuit accuses the government and Prudential, which underwrites the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, of breach of contract for refusing to pay the claim. According to the lawsuit, Indiana law requires a burial for any "child" who dies after 20 weeks gestation. The Warnocks' attorneys are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, which would enable other couples in the military's insurance program who delivered stillborn infants of at least 20 weeks gestation after August 1993 to join the lawsuit. According to Charleyne Gabriel, one of the Warnock's attorneys, Indiana's statute of limitations for enforcement of written contracts is 10 years. Gabriel said that she is not aware of any federal court rulings on whether parents of stillborn fetuses are entitled to life insurance claims. Prudential spokesperson Bob DeFillippo said that the company will not comment on the case because it is being litigated, according to the AP/Courier-Journal (AP/Louisville Courier-Journal, 9/20).