Roberts v. United States, 5508.

• Decision Date: 11 November 1946
• Docket Number: No. 5508.,5508.
• Citation: 157 F.2d 906
• Parties: ROBERTS v. UNITED STATES et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

157 F.2d 906 (1946)

ROBERTS v. UNITED STATES et al.

No. 5508.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

November 11, 1946.

Russell T. Bradford, of Norfolk, Va. (Wailes Hank, of Norfolk, Va., on the brief), for appellant Margaret Elizabeth Roberts.

Fendall Marbury, Atty., Department of Justice, of Washington, D. C. (Harry H. Holt, Jr., U. S. Atty., Llewellyn S. Richardson, Asst. U. S. Atty., and John F. Sonnett, Asst. Atty. Gen., both of Washington, D. C., Searcy L. Johnson, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., and D. Vance Swann, Atty., Department of Justice, of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for the United States.

James G. Martin, of Roanoke, Va. (Fred J. Dean, Jr., of Norfolk, Va., on the brief), for appellee Joe Johnson Roberts.

Before PARKER, SOPER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

This suit was brought to recover from the United States the proceeds of a National Service Life Insurance policy in the amount of $10,000 on the life of Joe William Roberts, an officer in the Air Corps of the United States Navy who lost his life on active duty in the late war on January 10, 1944. The insurance was claimed by Margaret Elizabeth Roberts, the widow of the insured, and also by Joseph Johnson Roberts, his father, and the latter, as a party in interest, was joined as a defendant. The insured entered the armed services of the United States on February 23, 1942, and was granted the insurance on May 14, 1942, at which time he designated his father as sole beneficiary. He married Margaret Elizabeth Roberts on December 19, 1942, and on or about December 22, 1942, according to testimony offered on her behalf, changed the beneficiary in the policy and designated her in place of his father.

On May 19, 1944, she filed a claim for the insurance with the Veterans' Administration but on September 11, 1945, the claim was denied. In the meantime the father had filed a claim for the insurance with the Veterans' Administration, and since it had no notice of the adverse claim, his claim was recognized on April 20, 1944, and payment to him of monthly instalments in the sum of $73.20 each, effective January 10, 1944, was begun. Certain payments were made to him prior to the institution of the present suit which was brought by the widow against the United States and the father. A jury trial was waived and hearing was had before the District Judge who rejected the widow's claim and entered a judgment wherein it was held that the father was entitled to the full amount of the insurance and that his attorneys were entitled to 10 per cent thereof for their services, and that the father should pay to the attorneys an amount equal to 10 per cent of the payments already received by him, and that the balance should be paid by the United States at the rate of 10 per cent of succeeding monthly instalments when and as made to the beneficiary.

The testimony on behalf of the widow may be summarized as follows: The officer and his wife had known each other from childhood, attended the same high school and became engaged in August, 1941, intending to be married after he had finished his college course. The war intervened. The insured went into the Naval service, received his commission on December 8, 1942, and married the complainant on December 19, 1942, in Jacksonville, Florida, near which city he was stationed. A few days later the young couple, together with William W. Perry, Jr., a brother officer in the same service, and his wife, who had also been married on December 19, 1942, drove to the city in order to change the beneficiaries named in their insurance policies and in other documents in favor of their wives. The other documents related to a gratuity payment of six months' additional pay in case of death and a bonus of $500 after the completion of one year's service. Leaving their wives to do Christmas shopping, the two officers went to the office where the officers' records were kept at the Administration Building of the Naval Air Station and stated their wishes to the clerk in charge.

Each of the men was furnished a set of forms and instructed to fill them out in pencil, and also to sign a set of blank forms upon which the clerk in charge agreed to enter the information furnished by the officers, and then to take charge of the papers and put them in the proper channel. The two men stood side by side at the counter and compared their entries as they were engaged upon identical work. Perry saw Roberts change the beneficiary in the several documents in favor of his wife.

This testimony was corroborated by Mrs. Perry and Mrs. Roberts to the extent of saying that the trip was undertaken for the stated purpose of making the newly wedded wives the beneficiaries of the advantages offered by the United States.

The designation of Mrs. Roberts as beneficiary in the insurance policy was not found in the Veterans' Bureau. A confidential form was found in the records of the Navy Department and produced at the request of the Veterans' Administration. It had been placed in a sealed envelope in accordance with the regulations, to be opened only upon the death of the officer. It consisted of a printed form signed by the insured dated December 15, 1943, wherein he gave the name and address of his wife and stated that he had $10,000 of Government insurance of which his wife was the beneficiary. Another copy of this confidential form dated September 24, 1943, in the handwriting of the insured but not signed, was produced in evidence. It also contained the information that the insured had $10,000 of Government insurance of which his wife was the beneficiary. This paper was found amongst the effects of the insured after his death. In addition there was produced a card in the insured's handwriting, which was received by the wife from the commander of the squadron after her husband's death, which stated that the wife was the beneficiary of the insurance. This was an official record kept with the records of the squadron from the entry of the officer therein until his transfer. Finally, there was produced in evidence a beneficiary slip, dated December 21, 1942, and witnessed by Perry, in which Roberts designated his wife as beneficiary of the bonus of $500 in case he...