Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. McDavid

• Decision Date: 12 June 1941
• Docket Number: No. 72.,72.
• Citation: 39 F. Supp. 228
• Parties: METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. v. McDAVID et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

39 F. Supp. 228

METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. v. McDAVID et al.

No. 72.

District Court, E. D. Michigan, N. D.

June 12, 1941.

Weadock & Weadock, of Saginaw, Mich., for plaintiff.

Edward C. MacRae, of Saginaw, Mich., for Beatrice McDavid.

R. M. Van Dyne, of Flint, Mich., for Alvania McDavid.

James M. Davis, of Saginaw, Mich., for T. H. Westbrook, administrator of the Estate of Israel McDavid, deceased.

TUTTLE, District Judge.

The plaintiff, a New York corporation, filed its bill of interpleader and paid into court the sum of $3,459.24, the amount admitted by the plaintiff to be due to the lawful claimants for the proceeds of three certain insurance policies upon the life of Israel McDavid, deceased. One policy upon which $458.51 was due was made payable to the executor or administrator of the insured. Another policy upon which there was due $984.95 was made payable to Beatrice McDavid as wife. A third policy upon which there was due $2,015.78 was made payable to Beatrice McDavid as his wife. This third policy was a group policy issued to General Motors Corporation and was upon the life of Israel McDavid as an employee. This group policy contained the following clause:

"If there is no designated beneficiary at the time when any benefit shall be payable to the beneficiary, then the benefit shall be paid as follows: to the wife or husband, if living, of such employee; if not living, to the children of such employee who survive such employee, equally; if none survive, to the father and mother of such employee equally, or to the survivor; if none of the above survive such employee, to the estate of such employee." Beatrice McDavid claims under the first policy as widow and heir at law. She claims as named beneficiary under the other two policies. The defendant, Alvania McDavid, is a citizen of the State of Alabama and the mother of the deceased. Aside from the wife, there are no near relatives of the deceased except his mother. The mother claims that the deceased was killed by the wife, Beatrice McDavid, under such circumstances that the wife is barred from receiving the proceeds of the policies and that the mother should receive directly in her own name the $2,015.78 due under the third policy, less proper expenses and charges of these proceedings, and that the proceeds of the other two policies should be paid to the defendant T. H. Westbrook as administrator to be administered in accordance with the laws of the State of Michigan and distributed in the same way in which they would have been distributed and applicable if Beatrice McDavid, the wife of the beneficiary, had predeceased the insured. The defendant T. H. Westbrook, as administrator of the estate of Israel McDavid, deceased, claims the proceeds of the policy for $458.51 and the policy for $984.95 to be administered by the State Probate Court.

The interesting and only disputed question involved is whether Beatrice McDavid took the life of her husband, Israel McDavid, under such circumstances that she cannot receive the proceeds of these policies as she otherwise would have done.

Israel McDavid and Beatrice McDavid were colored people. They were married in West Virginia in 1924. He was a coal miner. In the spring of 1929, they moved to Saginaw, Michigan, and he went to work in the Chevrolet foundry of General Motors. Except for slight interruptions, they lived in a single room or a small apartment in some rooming house in Saginaw and he continued to work in the Chevrolet foundry until the time of his death on August 11, 1939. At frequent intervals during this time, they quarreled and fought. Their quarreling and fighting seemed to be just an incident of their home life and did not interrupt it in any way. It was not a feud on any particular subject, but just isolated rows about anything and everything. McDavid owned an automobile, and in the afternoon of August 10, 1939, Mr. and Mrs. McDavid left the rooming house where they lived and rode around Saginaw in this automobile. They stopped and visited a colored woman whom they both knew. After that, Mr. and Mrs. McDavid went to a beer garden. The both drank a little beer. He then took her to the home of another friend and they arranged that when she was through with her visit she would meet him at still another beer garden. She kept the appointment but when she got to the beer garden McDavid was not ready to leave, so she went back to the home of her friend for another visit. When Mrs. McDavid finally left his friend to go home, she met other friends who took her in their car and to their home. She sent word by another mutual acquaintance to Mr. McDavid telling him where she had gone. She spent the evening with these friends playing cards. In the meantime, Mr. McDavid spent the evening at a beer garden with a colored man by the name of Jackson. The friends of Mrs. McDavid started to take her home some time after midnight and Mr. McDavid started home from the beer garden alone in his car some time after midnight. At a red light corner a few blocks from where the McDavids roomed, McDavid turned in front of another car and hooked his rear bumper into the front bumper of the other car. This resulted in an argument between the drivers of the two cars, a crowd gathered, and a policeman gave McDavid a ticket. Mrs. McDavid with her friends came along about that time. Mrs. McDavid's friends left her at the scene of the accident, she talked with people in the crowd, and got the erroneous idea that McDavid had been out with some other woman. She questioned McDavid as to who had been in the car with him. He was mad and walked away. Among others, Mrs. McDavid talked with Jackson, who was driving his own car, but with whom McDavid had spent the evening at the beer garden. Mrs. McDavid left the scene of the accident and went home on foot, a distance of about five blocks. McDavid drove home in his automobile so when Mrs. McDavid got there her husband had already arrived. He was sitting on the bed in their room. He said, "I suppose you are glad I got a ticket." She replied, "Yes, maybe it will take some of that smartness out of you." That started another quarrel and it continued for some time, each saying mean and accusing things to the other. The name of Jackson figured in the quarrel because Jackson had been with McDavid during the latter part of the evening. Jackson had been at the scene of the accident, and Mrs. McDavid had not only talked with Jackson but McDavid had seen her talking with Jackson. McDavid evidently decided to take his wife into the presence of Jackson and settle the argument. In any event, he insisted that his wife go with him and they went out to the automobile. Mrs. McDavid got into the right-hand side of the front seat, and, knowing that McDavid's loaded revolver was in the pocket of the car, she took the revolver out of the pocket and put it in her handbag while McDavid was going around the front of the car to get in on the left-hand side. It is plain that Mrs. McDavid did not intend at that time to kill Mr. McDavid or anyone else, but that her purpose was to put the revolver where McDavid could not use it for any purpose while he was angry. By this time, it was two or three o'clock in the morning of August 11. They went to the rooming house where Jackson and his wife lived in a little room. The McDavids knew very well where the room was. Mrs. Jackson was asleep in the bed and Jackson was in bed but not yet asleep. The McDavids went to the front door of the house where the Jacksons roomed, McDavid knocked on the front door and somebody from upstairs called out, "Come in". The McDavids then went inside the front door and McDavid went upstairs and knocked on the door to the Jacksons' room and called to Jackson. Jackson evidently answered, because McDavid came back downstairs, got Mrs. McDavid, and they both went up to the room. Mrs. Jackson was still in bed and Jackson was sitting on the side of the bed. Mr. McDavid walked in the room first, followed by Mrs. McDavid. Mrs. McDavid sat down in the only chair in the room. McDavid walked over to the foot of the bed and asked Jackson, "Did you tell my wife there was any women in my car to-night?" To which Jackson replied, "No, I did not." To all of which Mrs. McDavid responded, "Nobody said that." Whereupon, McDavid turned around and struck Mrs. McDavid on the side of the head and face with his hand, causing Mrs. McDavid's nose to bleed. There was much confusion and it is difficult to tell just what was said and done, but there isn't any question but that McDavid was mad, accused his wife of lying, claimed that Jackson's statement had proven Mrs. McDavid untruthful, and that in his anger McDavid struck Mrs. McDavid, made her mad and caused her nose to bleed. No one can be positive whether Mrs. McDavid in her anger immediately decided to open her handbag, get the gun and kill McDavid, or whether her first impulse was to open her handbag and get her handkerchief for use in connection with the nosebleed and while in that pursuit saw the revolver and thought about using the revolver. It is plain that the blow by Mr. McDavid and the pain and nosebleed resulting to Mrs. McDavid were sufficient cause for great anger on the part of Mrs. McDavid. There isn't any question but that Mrs. McDavid was very angry with her husband and there isn't any question but that in this anger and before there had been a cooling time she took the revolver out of her handbag, pointed it at her husband, fired all five of the shots in the revolver at her husband, three of which struck him and killed him almost instantly. She was of sound mind, it was not done in self-defense, she intended to kill him and did kill him. No better example could be found of what the courts in Michigan call "common-law voluntary manslaughter".

The statutes of Michigan expressly define murder in the first degree. Mich.Stat. Ann., Sec. 28.548, C.L.1929, Sec. 16708. In the succeeding section, the...