IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 18-51078

Summary Calendar

JASON FREEMAN,

Plaintiff-Appellant

v.

SECURIAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY,

Defendant-Appellee

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Western District of Texas

USDC No. 5:17-CV-540

Before WIENER, HAYNES, and COSTA, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

Plaintiff-Appellant Jason Freeman’s 17-year-old son, Adrian, died 

instantly when he pulled the trigger of a revolver, the barrel of which he had 

inserted in his mouth immediately after he had spun that gun’s cylinder and 

twirled the gun around his finger. Shortly after Adrian’s death, it was 

 

* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not 

be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH 

CIR. R. 47.5.4.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

October 1, 2019

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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determined that the revolver had had only one cartridge in the cylinder1. The 

Deputy Medical Examiner of Bexar County, Texas, concluded that the manner 

of Adrian’s death was suicide.

At the time of his son’s tragic death, Freeman was employed by Kohl’s 

Department Stores which maintained a group policy of accidental death and 

dismemberment (“AD&D”) issued by Defendant-Appellee Securian Life 

Insurance Company. Adrian was covered under that policy as Freeman’s

dependent. AD&D was maintained by Kohl’s in accordance with ERISA. As

such, Securian had the exclusive right and sole discretion to interpret the 

policy’s terms. Securian’s exercise of such discretionary authority of 

interpretation was conclusive and binding on all persons “unless it [could] be 

shown that the determination was arbitrary and capricious.”

After the parties filed competing motions for summary judgment, the 

district court denied Freeman’s and granted Securian’s. In a detailed and 

exhaustive opinion, the district court determined that — regardless of the fact 

that Adrian’s death was classified as a suicide by the medical examiner — his 

death was, pursuant to AD&D, “caused directly or indirectly by ... (1) selfinflicted injury ...; or (2) suicide....”

In this case, “suicide” is a red herring. Suicide is one of two disjunctive 

causes of death that is excluded from coverage under AD&D. The other is selfinflicted injury. And, as the district court determined, Adrian’s death was 

irrefutably the result of his self-inflicted injury. Securian’s exclusion of 

 

1 This was a classic incident of Russian Roulette, “an act of daring comprising 

squeezing the trigger of a revolver held to the head after loading one chamber and spinning 

the cylinder.” The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary of Historical Principles, Vol. 2, 

page 2654 (1993).

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Adrian’s death from AD&D coverage under its policy was not arbitrary and

capricious.

We have reviewed the record on appeal of this case, including the district 

court’s careful and exhaustive 19-page opinion and its 12-page denial of 

Freeman’s Motion for Reconsideration, and we are satisfied that the court was

imminently correct. The disposition of this case by the district court is, in all 

respects,

AFFIRMED.

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