Grange Holdings Sues Kansas City Life Over Name

Grange Holdings believes that Kansas City Life Insurance Company may be taking too long to give up the Grange Life Insurance Company name.

Grange, an insurer based in Columbus, Ohio, sold its Grange Life subsidiary to Kansas City Life for $77.2 million in 2018. Kansas City Life agreed to end use of the Grange Life name after five years, with an additional 90-day phase-out period.

The five-year period ended Oct. 1, and Kansas City Life has waived the right to the 90-day phase-out period because it has refused to wind down use of the trademarked Grange Life name and the trademarked Grange Life logo, according to a complaint filed by Grange in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Grange is asking the court for declaratory judgment that would force Kansas City Life to stop using the Grange Life name and logo. It has asked the court to schedule a non-jury trial that would start around June 3.

Kansas City Life argued in a motion to dismiss that Grange filed the lawsuit in the wrong forum, because an agreement on forum selection clauses requires the case to be filed in either a state court in Delaware or a federal court in Delaware.