Court Opinion

ID: 9638399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:43:00.622349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:06.262690
License: Public Domain

STEPHENS, Circuit Judge.
I dissent.
I am not in accord with the main opinion wherein it is stated that the United States district court did not have jurisdiction to decide the issues between the two claimants to insurance benefits. There was diversity of citizenship present and if Lilly Pack had had any objection to the venue she should have made it known seasonably. See Neirbo Co. v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 308 U.S. 165, at pages 167, 168, 60 S.Ct. 153, 84 L.Ed. 167, 128 A.L.R. 1437. Instead she pleaded to all of the issues of fact and law by answer and by cross-complaint and requested affirmative relief. I think the facts of the instant case and those of United States v. Sherwood, 312 U.S. 584, 61 S.Ct. 767, 85 L.Ed. 1058, distinguish the latter case as not authority here.
Whatever may be said as to the statutory requirement that insurance benefits are to be paid only to the named beneficiary (or successor in interest as provided by the statute) in every and all circumstances [Compare Licznerski v. United States, D.C.E.D.Pa.1949, 81 F.Supp. 837], it by no means follows that in every instance the beneficiary receiving the benefit ozvns it. We have an exception to such conclusion in this case. Since the insurance was paid for out of community funds without the consent of the wife, Angel Pack, an interest in the benefits deriving therefrom accrued to her I think the district court should have taken full jurisdiction and, upon the facts of the case and the applicable law should have defined the rights of both claimants. By appropriate provision in the judgment the district court should have decreed protection to the wife as to any interest she should have in benefits which may be paid to the mother.