Fleming v. Grimes

The suit is in equity, and the proceeds of a life insurance policy is the subject-matter of the litigation.

The question presented for our decision is whether the legal heirs of the beneficiaries in the policy shall take the proceeds, or whether the proceeds go to the heirs of the insured, where the beneficiaries and the insured all died in a common disaster, under a policy in which the right to change the beneficiary was reserved in the insured but not exercised by him, and it being impossible to prove otherwise than that all died at the same time.

The determination of the question is to be…