Arnold v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.

• Citation: 970 F.2d 360
• Decision Date: 06 August 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-2669,91-2669
• Parties: Dorothy M. ARNOLD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Page 360

970 F.2d 360

Dorothy M. ARNOLD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 91-2669.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 27, 1992.

Decided Aug. 6, 1992.

David M. Foreman (argued), James C. Cooksey, Crain, Cooksey, Veltman & Miller, Centralia, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.

William J. Toppeta, Amy K. Posner (argued), Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., Law Dept., New York City, for defendant-appellee.

Before CUMMINGS, EASTERBROOK and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.

CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Dorothy Arnold is the designated beneficiary under a certificate of insurance issued to her son Steven. She filed this suit against Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to enforce the accidental death benefits provision of the insurance policy on the life of her son. Those benefits amounted to $60,000 plus interest. The defendant successfully moved for summary judgment on the ground that Steven's death from "Russian Roulette" was not accidental. Plaintiff has appealed from that ruling.

FACTS

Steven Arnold, a former correctional officer for the State of Illinois, had a history of playing Russian Roulette in front of his ex-wife. ¹ During their marriage, the local police chief once confiscated Arnold's revolver when he was threatening to harm himself with it. Steven also threatened his life by breathing the exhaust from his Jeep when his former wife left him. However, he abandoned the vehicle before suffering any significant injuries.

During a quarrel with his subsequent live-in girlfriend a few days before his death, Steven threatened to kill himself with his revolver but did not do so. Then, very early on Saturday, June 4, 1988, they fought over possession of the fully loaded Smith and Wesson six-shot revolver. During their struggle all of the bullets fell out. Steven put one of the bullets back in the revolver, spun the cylinder containing the bullet, held the gun to his head and fatally shot himself. The defendant insurance company argues that Steven's death from Russian Roulette was reasonably foreseeable, and thus not accidental. Plaintiff, on the other hand, presents testimony suggesting that Steven had no intent to kill himself and that he fired the loaded gun at his head, not in order to commit suicide, but rather to intimidate his girlfriend into acting as he wished. As such, plaintiff contends that Steven's death was unintended and therefore accidental.

ANALYSIS

In this diversity case, in the absence of an Illinois Supreme Court decision in point, we must look to the decisions of the Appellate Court of Illinois. Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Field, 311 U.S. 169, 177, 61 S.Ct. 176, 178, 85 L.Ed. 109 see also Indianapolis Airport Authority v. American Airlines, Inc., 733 F.2d 1262 (7th Cir.1984). That court has once followed and at other times discussed with approval decisions from other jurisdictions holding that deaths from Russian Roulette do not qualify as accidental within the meaning of life insurance policies. Since neither we nor plaintiff have found any contrary cases, we conclude that Illinois law does not recognize Russian Roulette deaths as accidental in order to qualify for accidental death insurance benefits.

Three Illinois cases suggest that under Illinois law, death resulting from playing Russian Roulette is not accidental. First, in Crespo v. John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co., 41 Ill.App.3d 506, 519, 354 N.E.2d 381 (1st Dist.1976), the Appellate Court of Illinois stated that in playing Russian Roulette, if, as here, Crespo had "been aware that the gun was loaded, a judgment in favor of defendant [insurer whose policy excluded accidental death] would be sustainable," citing Koger v. Mutual of Omaha Ins. Co., 152 W.Va. 274, 163 S.E.2d 672 (1968), and Thompson v. Prudential Insurance Co., 84 Ga.App. 214, 66 S.E.2d 119 (1951). In Koger the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals held that death from "the precarious and ridiculous 'game' of Russian Roulette" is intentional and not accidental. 163 S.E.2d at 676. Similarly, in Thompson, where the insured removed all but one cartridge from the revolver and was killed when playing Russian Roulette, the Georgia Court of Appeals held that death was not caused by accidental means. The Thompson court stated that

"where one engages in a game of Russian Roulette * * * his death or injury is no less intentional than had the gun been fully loaded and his death or injury cannot be said to have been the result of accident or effected by accidental means. In such a case, it will be presumed that the participant intended that he should be killed or injured should fate stop the cartridge in the spinning cylinder in firing position." 66 S.E.2d at 123.

Thompson was discussed with apparent approval in a second Illinois appellate court case--Rodgers v. Reserve Life Ins. Co., 8 Ill.App.2d 542, 546-548, 132 N.E.2d 692 (2d Dist.1956). Finally, Marsh v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 70 Ill.App.3d 790, 793, 27 Ill.Dec. 158, 388 N.E.2d 1121 (2d Dist.1979), acknowledges that the cases involving Russian Roulette hold that death therefrom is foreseeable rather than accidental. ²

Based on the Appellate Court of Illinois cases and their citation to precedent from other jurisdictions, we hold that under Illinois law, death from Russian Roulette is not considered accidental. Plaintiff makes a strong argument that Illinois cases concerning accidental death outside the Russian Roulette context suggest that plaintiff should be entitled to recovery under Illinois'...