Odom v. Travelers Insurance Co., 679.
| Decision Date | 16 June 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 679.,679. |
| Citation | 174 F. Supp. 426 |
| Parties | Orville M. ODOM, Administrator of the Estate of Edd Lee Lovejoy, Deceased, Plaintiff, v. TRAVELERS INSURANCE CO., Defendant, Georgianna Dedow, Defendant in Interpleader. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Arkansas |
Ned A. Stewart, Texarkana, Ark., Robinson & Robinson, Lewisville, Ark., for plaintiff.
Wright, Harrison, Lindsey & Upton, Little Rock, Ark., for Insurance Co.
Bodenheimer, Looney & Richie, Parker & Lee, Shreveport, La., Robert M. Lowe, Texarkana, Ark., for interpleader.
On December 4, 1957, the plaintiff filed his complaint in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Arkansas, seeking to recover on a policy of life insurance issued to Edd Lee Lovejoy, the insured, by defendant, The Travelers Insurance Company, in the sum of $10,000, together with twelve percent penalty and attorney's fee.
The policy, No. 2819076, was issued January 28, 1957. The beneficiary designated in the policy was "to my estate." The defendant insurance company agreed in the policy to pay the designated beneficiary at the home office of the company in Hartford, Connecticut, the amount of the insurance stated therein immediately on receipt of the company's prescribed forms of due proof of the death of the insured during the continuance of the contract.
The policy provided that the beneficiary might be changed by the insured as follows:
In due time the defendant insurance company removed the case to this court and filed its answer and counterclaim. In its answer the defendant insurance company admitted the issuance of the policy and that it was obligated by the terms thereof to pay the sum of $10,000, less $13 for a premium which was due July 28, 1957, and had not been paid; that it was willing to pay the sum of $9,987 but that there were conflicting claims in that the plaintiff, who had been appointed Administrator of the Estate of Edd Lee Lovejoy, the insured, was making claim for said sum and that Georgianna Dedow was likewise making a claim for payment of said amount by virtue of what she claimed to be a valid will of the decedent, Edd Lee Lovejoy, dated June 12, 1957.
In its counterclaim the defendant insurance company asked that Georgianna Dedow be made a party and that it be permitted to pay the said sum of $9,987.00 into the registry of the court, and that it be discharged.
The plaintiff is a citizen and resident of the State of Arkansas. The defendant insurance company is a citizen and resident of the State of Connecticut and authorized to engage in the life insurance business in Arkansas. Georgianna Dedow was and is now a citizen and resident of the State of Louisiana.
Following the filing of the answer and counterclaim by the defendant insurance company, the court on December 26, 1957, directed that summons be issued and served on the said Georgianna Dedow and restrained the plaintiff and Mrs. Dedow from instituting or prosecuting in any other court any claim to the proceeds of said insurance.
On January 20, 1958, Mrs. Dedow filed a motion for additional time to answer, in which she alleged that:
On the same day the motion was filed the court extended for thirty days the time for her to answer the counterclaim for interpleader.
On February 17, 1958, Mrs. Dedow filed her "Answer and Claim to Fund," in which she alleged that the moneys represented by the fund now interpleaded are the proceeds of a life insurance policy issued by defendant insurance company upon the life of Edd Lee Lovejoy, deceased. She attached a photostatic copy of the policy, and further alleged that while the policy designated the beneficiary as "to my estate," the right was reserved unto the insured to change the beneficiary at any time. She further alleged:
Upon the filing of the answer by the defendant in interpleader, Mrs. Dedow, the plaintiff on March 6, 1958, filed his motion for additional time to reply to the answer and claim of Mrs. Dedow, and on the same day the court extended the time of plaintiff in which to file a reply to said answer and claim.
On September 13, 1958, the court entered an order sustaining the interpleader and discharging the defendant, The Travelers Insurance Company, from any and all further liability with respect to the insurance policy herein involved.
On October 13, 1958, by agreement of counsel for the plaintiff, the Administrator, and the defendant in interpleader, Mrs. Dedow, the court entered the following order:
"By agreement of counsel, it is ordered by the court that the said interpleader be allowed thirty days from this date within which to take whatever action she may deem necessary in the Probate Court of Lafayette County, Arkansas, and the time heretofore granted to the plaintiff to reply to the answer of the interpleader is further extended until the disposition of litigation in the said Probate Court of Lafayette County, Arkansas."
Mrs. Dedow and her attorneys decided not to file a proceeding for the probate of the will in the Probate Court of Lafayette County, Arkansas, and her attorneys advised the attorneys for the plaintiff that no such action would be taken. Upon receipt of such information the plaintiff on May 13, 1959, filed his reply to the answer and claim of Mrs. Dedow. In his reply the plaintiff admitted that the fund in the registry of the court is the proceeds of the insurance policy issued by defendant insurance company upon the life of Edd Lee Lovejoy; that the designated beneficiary in the policy was "to my estate" and that the policy provided that the beneficiary might be changed subject to the written approval of the company.
Denied that the insured on June 12, 1957, or on any other date executed his last will and testament, holographic in form, and that any change of beneficiary was ever made in said policy.
Admitted that the insured, Edd Lee Lovejoy, died in Lafayette County, Arkansas, on July 30, 1957, and that an instrument purporting to be his last will and testament was admitted to probate without notice in the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier Parish, Louisiana, on January 24, 1958.
Denied that Mrs. Dedow is entitled to the fund in the registry of the court. The plaintiff further alleged that at the time of the death of the insured, July 30, 1957, he was a citizen and resident of the Town of Bradley in Lafayette County, Arkansas, where he had resided for a period of over two years prior to his death; that he died intestate, and that following his death, upon the petition of the surviving widow and father of the insured, the plaintiff, Orville M. Odom, was appointed Administrator of the estate of the deceased by the Lafayette County Probate Court on August 2, 1957.
In paragraph 5 of the reply the plaintiff states:
"Plaintiff further alleges that when he found out about the admission to probate on the 24th day of January, 1958, in the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier Parish, Louisiana of the purported instrument, he immediately filed suit in his name as Administrator versus Georgianna Dedow in the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier Parish, Louisiana, to set aside and annul the order of that court admitting to probate said purported instrument; that said suit was filed on February 7, 1958, and that said case was tried on April 29, 1958, and that on the 26th day of September, 1958, the said order of the 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier Parish, Louisiana admitting said purported instrument to probate on the 26th day of January, 1958, was annulled and set aside, a copy of said judgment being attached hereto, marked Exhibit `I' and made a...
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Aetna Life Insurance Company v. Hayes, 15269.
...does not recognize a contemplated change of beneficiary which is still unexecuted at the time of the insured's death. Odom v. Travelers Insurance Co., 174 F.Supp. 426, 436, W.D. Arkansas; Hunter v. Federal Life Ins. Co., 111 F.2d 551, 556, C.A. In Tomaneng v. Reeves, 180 F.2d 208, 209, C.A.......
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