United States v. Burns, Civ. No. 5243.

• Decision Date: 13 February 1952
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 5243.
• Citation: 103 F. Supp. 690
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. BURNS et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

103 F. Supp. 690

UNITED STATES v. BURNS et al.

Civ. No. 5243.

United States District Court D. Maryland.

February 13, 1952.

C. R. McKenrick, Asst. U. S. Atty., Baltimore, Md., for U. S J. Healy Sullivan, of Baltimore, Md., for Mrs. Monette Ritter Burns.

Maurice J. Pressman, of Baltimore, Md., for Helen Burns Huettner, as guardian of Patricia A. Burns.

COLEMAN, Chief Judge.

The Government has brought this suit as one in the nature of interpleader under Section 19 of the World War Veterans' Act of 1924, as amended, and Section 617 of the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940, as amended, 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 445 and 817, against two defendants who claim an interest in a certain policy of National Service Life Insurance issued by the Government to one Emmet T. Burns, a member of our armed forces.

The material facts respecting which there is no dispute are as follows: The insured, Emmet T. Burns, enlisted in the United States Navy on September 22nd, 1942, and was honorably discharged therefrom on September 22nd, 1945. While in the Navy the insured applied for and was issued a National Service Life Insurance policy for the sum of $5,000, effective November 1st, 1942, having designated a daughter, Patricia A. Burns, by his divorced wife, the sole beneficiary of this policy. On April 7th, 1944, the insured having remarried five months previously, changed the beneficiary by naming his second wife, Monette Ritter Burns, hereinafter referred to as Mrs. Burns, the principal beneficiary, and his daughter Patricia, above referred to, as the contingent beneficiary. On September 1st, 1944, there was issued to the insured an additional National Service Life Insurance policy also in the amount of $5,000, in which the insured named the same beneficiaries. On October 29th, 1945, the insured dropped $8,000 of the aforegoing insurance and converted the balance, namely, $2,000, into so-called thirty-pay life insurance for which a certificate was issued to the insured on November 1st, 1945. This policy was in force on March 6th, 1949, when the insured died as a result of gun shot wounds inflicted by Mrs. Burns. She was subsequently indicted in Baltimore County, Maryland, for the murder of her husband, to which she pleaded not guilty, was tried before a jury, and on April 21st, 1949, was found not guilty.

Claim to the aforementioned $2,000 life insurance was duly made upon the Veterans' Administration by Mrs. Burns, as principal beneficiary, but the Veterans' Administration, in its present petition, pleads its unwillingness to determine that Mrs. Burns is entitled to receive this insurance instead of the daughter of the insured, Patricia, who is named in the policy as contingent beneficiary and, therefore, prays that this Court determine the rights of the respective parties.

It is well settled as a general rule of evidence that records in criminal cases are not admissible in evidence in civil cases, although both arise from the same facts. New York Life Insurance Co. v. Murdaugh, 4 Cir., 94 F.2d 104. The reason for this is that the parties and also the measure of proof required are different, and the issues not identical. However, so much of the testimony in the criminal proceeding against Mrs. Burns as was preserved as a written transcript and also certain pre-trial statements of the accused, have been stipulated into the present case by agreement of all parties because of the difficulty if not impossibility of reproducing the same witnesses, but leaving to the determination of this Court the effect to be given in this proceeding to such evidence. Thus, there are presented to this Court for determination the two following questions: (1) Must the verdict of acquittal of Mrs. Burns in the State Court be treated as res adjudicata and therefore binding upon this Court; and (2) even though that verdict be not binding upon this Court, should Mrs. Burns be held entitled to the insurance as against the contingent beneficiary, in face of the fact that she caused the death of her husband?

As respects the first of these questions it is well settled that acquittal on a criminal charge is not res adjudicata in a subsequent civil action. Helvering v. Mitchell, 303 U.S. 391, 58 S.Ct. 630, 82 L.Ed. 917; Murphy v. United States, 272 U.S. 630, 47 S.Ct. 218, 71 L.Ed. 446; Stone v. United States, 167 U.S. 178, 17 S.Ct. 778, 42 L.Ed. 127. See also New York Life Insurance Co. v. Murdaugh, supra. The same is true where there has been conviction and not acquittal of the criminal charge. Kusnir v. Pressed Steel Car Co., D.C., 201 F. 146; Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. McDavid, D.C., 39 F.Supp. 228.

Turning now to the second question before the Court, namely, even though the acquittal of Mrs. Burns is not res adjudicata in the present proceeding, is she entitled to the insurance, an examination of the undisputed facts as disclosed by the record in the criminal case, and particularly by her own admissions therein, convinces us that the insurance should be paid to the contingent beneficiary and not to Mrs. Burns.

The evidence in the criminal case that has been stipulated into the present case consists, apart from certain police records and other documentary evidence, entirely of Mrs. Burns' own pre-trial statements and her testimony at the trial. This testimony is to the effect that for a period of some four months prior to killing her husband, the pair had been having marital difficulties and had been living apart. While thus estranged, during the evening of March 5th, 1949, Mrs. Burns met one Captain Daniel Lynch in a Baltimore night club. They spent the evening together, going to various places and arrived at her home about four-thirty a.m. March 6th. Mrs. Burns suggested that Captain Lynch, instead of returning to his hotel, remain in the guest room of her house. Upon her taking him to this room, they were suddenly confronted by her husband who had been waiting in hiding there. He immediately attacked Captain Lynch. A violent scuffle ensued between the two. Mr. Burns used no violence at that time against Mrs. Burns. The Captain went downstairs followed by Burns. Mrs. Burns remained upstairs. The Captain tried to leave by the front door but then came back upstairs, followed by Burns, and locked himself in the bathroom. Burns ordered him to come out, saying he would not hurt him. At this time Mrs. Burns stood in the hallway, trying to calm her husband. Then the Captain came out of the bathroom, went downstairs and was followed by both Mr. and Mrs. Burns. Burns then ordered both the Captain and his wife to leave the house, which they did. While outside, the Captain remonstrated with her not to go back into the house, saying that her husband was crazy. She replied "Well, you go on. I think everything will be all right." The husband then came out of the front door and forced Mrs. Burns back into the house where, in the livingroom, he violently attacked her and grabbed her by the back of her hair and slammed her up and down in a cushion on the sofa. When he finally relented some-what in his attack upon her, Mrs. Burns ran upstairs to her bedroom and removed a loaded automatic pistol from her dresser drawer. She then came down again and at the foot of the stairs she and her husband had an argument over a joint savings account. He said "If you think I am afraid of that gun — go ahead...