Smith v. Massachusetts Mut. Life Ins. (167 F.2d 990, 1948)

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge.

The situation, as shown by the record, is this. Appellant, Mrs. Selene R. Smith, is beneficiary in two policies of life insurance on the life of her husband for $5,000 each issued in 1934 by the appellee Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. Each contains a provision that if the death of the insured shall result directly or indirectly from operating or being in or on or riding in any kind of aircraft, whether as a passenger or otherwise, the amount payable shall be limited to the reserve less any indebtedness. The reserve on each is a little over $700. On January 23, 1943, Smith, being in the Army, started with others on an airplane trip in the line of duty from Puerto Rico to Waller Field on the island of Trinidad and the plane disappeared, and neither it nor anyone on it has been heard from since. The War Department reported to Mrs. Smith that her husband was missing, then that he was dead; but the latter report was withdrawn on the ground that there were small islands