Ever heard of "dead peasant" insurance policies? We hadn't either, until recently. In a nutshell, they're often secret insurance policies taken out by companies on unwitting employees, which can yield sizable corporate tax breaks.

They're also, it turns out, spawning a good deal of litigation. The National Law Journal recently ran a piece on lawsuits related to the policies. And in today's WSJ, reporter Ellen Schultz weighs in -- focusing largely on an odd Texas lawsuit.

The...