General American Life Ins. Co. v. Jackel, 515.

• Decision Date: 24 December 1941
• Docket Number: No. 515.,515.
• Citation: 42 F. Supp. 475
• Parties: GENERAL AMERICAN LIFE INS. CO. v. JACKEL et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

42 F. Supp. 475

GENERAL AMERICAN LIFE INS. CO. v. JACKEL et al.

No. 515.

District Court, E. D. Louisiana, New Orleans Division.

December 24, 1941.

Eugene J. McGivney, and Solomon S. Goldman, both of New Orleans, La., for petitioner.

Sidney W. Provensal, of Slidell, La., for defendant Mrs. Avery Thigpen Jackel.

Kehl & Cuquet and Fernando J. Cuquet, Jr., all of New Orleans, La., for defendant John Jackel and others.

CAILLOUET, District Judge.

This is an interpleader action with reference to life insurance proceeds, instituted by the plaintiff pursuant to the Act of Congress of January 20, 1936, c. 13, § 1, 49 Stat. 1096, 28 U.S.C.A. § 41, subd. 26.

The bill alleges that such proceeds are being claimed by citizens of different states, i.e., Mrs. Avery Thigpen Jackel, residing in the Eastern District of Louisiana, on the one hand, and Edwin Jackel and James Jackel, also therein residing, and John Jackel and Mary Argette Jackel residing in the Southern District of Alabama, on the other hand.

In due course, such insurance proceeds, which amount to the net sum of $2,933.61, were deposited in the registry of the Court, and the said five claimants were cited to appear.

Mrs. Avery Thigpen Jackel claims the whole of said net proceeds as the designated beneficiary under certificate No. 13,354 issued by the plaintiff insurance company to her deceased husband, Paul Jackel, to represent the insurance protection carried for him with it by the Federal Postal Employees' Association, of Denver, Colorado, under a group insurance contract bearing date of July 25, 1927. Edwin Jackel, James Jackel, John Jackel, and Mary Argette Jackel child of Paul Jackel, Jr., predeceased son of the insured Paul Jackel, claim said proceeds as heirs of Mary Meyers Jackel, the deceased insured's first wife and first designated beneficiary under said life insurance protection, but they pray, in the alternative, that they be, at least, adjudged to be entitled to receive "an amount equal to the premiums paid by the deceased insured."

The Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law are as follows, to-wit:

Findings of Fact.

1. Paul Jackel's life was insured in the sum of $3,000 on July 25, 1927, under group life insurance contract No. 204,164, issued by the International Life Insurance Company to the members of the Federal Postal Employees Association, of Denver, Colorado, but all such life insurance business of said company was re-insured by the Missouri State Life Insurance Company, whose own such business was, itself, thereafter, re-insured by the complainant herein, General American Life Insurance Company, said Paul Jackel's insurance protection under such group insurance contract was evidenced by certificate No. 13,354, which was issued to him by complainant, under the date of July 25, 1927; and said protection remained in full force and effect until the insured's death on March 1, 1941.

2. The person first designated by the insured as beneficiary of said life insurance protection was his then living first wife, Mary Meyers Jackel, with whom he resided in Louisiana, under the regime of the community of acquets and gains, from and inclusive of July 25, 1927, until her death on July 23, 1937.

3. By the terms of the aforementioned certificate No. 13,354, the right to change beneficiary was reserved to the insured.

4. To neither the insured nor said first designated beneficiary was there ever available, at any time, a cash surrender value with respect to the aforementioned insurance protection so carried on the life of said Paul Jackel, in favor of his said first beneficiary, Mary Meyers Jackel, the group insurance contract providing for none.

5. Four (4) children were born of the insured's first marriage, i.e., John, Edwin, James and Paul Jackel, Jr., who died in November, 1931, survived by his one child, Mary Argette Jackel.

6. Paul Jackel contracted a second marriage, on August 9, 1938, with Avery...