HCC International Insurance Co. PLC must pay out the bulk of a $12.5 million limit on a key man insurance policy taken out on Jordan Feldstein, the manager of pop band Maroon 5, who died from a blood clot in 2017, a federal court ruled last week.

The policy, though imperfectly drafted, was intended to cover revenue related to Mr. Feldstein at the time of his death, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in a March 4 opinion. Any revenue recovered after the talent manager’s death by Roc Nation LLC, the company that was in the process of buying him out, should not be subtracted from the claim, the ruling said.

In 2016, Mr. Feldstein, who was a childhood friend of the band’s lead singer, Adam Levine, agreed to sell his 49% stake in Career Artist Management to New York-based Roc Nation, a large talent management agency founded by rapper Jay-Z. Under the terms of the sale, which was to take place in installments over several years, a key man life insurance policy was taken out on Mr. Feldstein.

The policy was renewed in 2017, but shortly after the renewal Mr. Feldstein died. After a protracted claims investigation, HCC, a London-based unit of Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., denied the claim on various grounds including a provision in the policy that it said allowed the insurer to claw back any revenue that Roc Nation derived from CAM after Mr. Feldstein’s death, according to court papers in Roc Nation LLC v. HCC International Insurance Co. PLC.

The court disagreed, holding that while the policy “is far from a model of draftsmanship” its definition of “Direct Ascertained Net Loss” does not unambiguously have the meaning that HCC attributed to the phrase. Taken in the context of the entire contract, the phrase is consistent with Roc Nation’s assertion that only revenue derived from CAM prior to Mr. Feldstein’s death should be deducted from the policy limit, the court ruled.

“It is clear that the parties’ reasonable expectation at the time of contracting was that HCC would cover, broadly speaking, Roc Nation’s investment in CAM less amounts Roc Nation had recouped or which had already been generated and which it imminently stood to recoup from CAM at the time of Feldstein’s death,” the court ruled.

HCC declined to comment on the ruling.