Barker v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance

This is an action by the widow of Joseph 0. Barker on two policies issued by the defendants separately, upon the life of her husband, in which she was named as beneficiary. The actions were brought separately, but by consent they were consolidated and tried as one, the same questions 'being presented. Indeed, the only matter at issue is the defense that the insured committed suicide.

The plaintiff was allowed to testify that some eight or ten months before her husband’s death he stated to her that he needed a pistol as deputy sheriff, and was thinking of getting one, and she also gave a…