Diane Lee Sigler v. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company

Diane Lee Sigler appeals the denial of her claim for accidental death benefits on a policy issued on her husband’s life by Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, as well as for compensatory and punitive damages as a result of Mutual Benefit’s alleged bad faith and intentional infliction of emotional distress in denying her claim for benefits.

On cross-motion for summary judgment, the district court 1 granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment, denying relief on the grounds that the insured’s cause of death, autoerotic asphyxia, 2 was self-inflicted injury resulting in death which under…