Beck

This litigation, commenced in the State 'Court of California and removed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California on the ground of diversity of citizenship involves a dispute between the heirs of an estate and a contingent beneficiary named in two life insurance policies, as to the distribution of the proceeds of the policies.

Lila L. Downey, a resident of California, while visiting in Iowa with her husband David A. Downey, also a resident of California, on July 20, 1946, applied to Peoples Life Insurance Company, a corporation of Indiana, for two insurance policies on her life. In the applications for the policies Lila L. Downey applied to “make the policies payable at death to David A. Downey, her husband, if living, otherwise to Jennie B. Downey of Bloomfield, Iowa, mother-in-law” (of the insured). Each policy was issued on August 12, 1946; in each policy Peoples Life Insurance Company agreed to pay “the sum of $5000 at the home office of the company in Frankfort, Indiana, upon receipt * * * of due proof of the interest of the claimant and of the death of Lila L. Downey, the insured, to David A. Downey, husband, as beneficiary, if living;…