Aubuchon v. Metropolitan Life Ins.

JOHNSEN, Circuit Judge.

The action is one under Missouri law to recover on the double indemnity provision of a life insurance policy, by which the insurer had agreed to pay the beneficiary an additional sum equal to the face amount of the policy, if the insured’s death resulted from “accidental means”, excluding, however, death from “self-destruction” and death from “poison * * * voluntarily or involuntarily, accidentally or otherwise, taken, administered, [or] absorbed”.1

The insurer had paid the beneficiary the regular death benefit under the policy, but denied liability for the extra…