Travelers Ins. Co. v. Davis, Civ. No. 2010-T.

• Decision Date: 31 January 1952
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 2010-T.
• Citation: 102 F. Supp. 5
• Parties: TRAVELERS INS. CO. v. DAVIS et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

102 F. Supp. 5

TRAVELERS INS. CO. v. DAVIS et al.

Civ. No. 2010-T.

United States District Court S. D. Florida, Tampa Division.

January 31, 1952.

Shackleford, Farrior, Shannon & Stallings, Tampa, Fla., for plaintiff.

Cooper, Cooper & Tucker, Tampa, Fla., for Mary C. Davis.

J. B. Norman and William R. McCown, Tampa, Fla., for Elizabeth R. Davis.

DE VANE, Chief Judge.

This is an interpleader involving claims to $1,500.00 in a Life Insurance certificate with The Travelers Insurance Company, a corporation.

The facts in the case are briefly summarized below:

Theodore L. Davis, deceased, hereinafter referred to as the insured, was an employee of the Monroe Calculating Machine Company, hereinafter referred to as the employer. The Travelers Insurance Company, plaintiff, herein, being hereinafter referred to as the company, issued a group policy to employer insuring its employees. A master policy was issued to employer containing the insurance contract, but a certificate was issued to each person covered by the policy. One of such certificates was issued to the insured on September 1, 1945, and in said certificate, Mary C. Davis, then the wife of the insured, was named beneficiary.

Provision #6 of the master policy reads as follows: "Change of Beneficiary — Any employee insured hereunder may designate a new beneficiary at any time by filing with the employer a written request for such change on forms furnished by the company, but such change shall be effective only upon receipt of such request at the Home Office of the company."

The certificate issued to the employee contained the following provision:

"If death shall occur during the continuance of said policy while the employee is insured hereunder, the amount of the employee's insurance, then in force, under said policy, shall be payable to the beneficiary designated by the employee.

"Under the group life insurance policy, the employee has the right to change the beneficiary."

In November, 1946 insured and Mary C. Davis were divorced and on December 28, 1946, insured married Elizabeth R. Rice. On October 23, 1950 insured executed and mailed to the General Office of the employer, at Orange, N. J., a memorandum changing the beneficiary and designating Elizabeth R. Davis, his wife, at that time, as beneficiary, under the policy. Two days later, on October 25, 1950, the above mentioned request reached the Home Office of the employer and on the same day the insured died.

The bill of interpleader, filed herein, named both Elizabeth R. Davis and Mary C. Davis, as defendants, and the company has paid into the registry of this court the sum of $1,500.00 due under the policy and has petitioned this court to determine the rightful beneficiary.

The parties stipulated as to the correctness of the facts stated in the pleadings filed herein and the sufficiency of these facts to determine the issue. From these facts it is shown, and the parties stipulated, that the designated change of beneficiary...