Mutual Benefit Life Insurance v. Clark

The plaintiff, Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, a corporation, brought this action in interpleader to compel the defendants to litigate between themselves their respective claims to the proceeds of a life insurance policy upon the life of William C. Clark, deceased.

The case was tried by the court sitting without a jury and the court decided that the proceeds of said policy belonged to the estate of William C. Clark, and that Eva Powell had no interest therein. From the judgment following this decision Eva Powell prosecutes this appeal.

The material facts are briefly these: William C. Clark was for many years a prominent attorney in Oakland, California ; he was never married and resided with his unmarried sister, Jennie E. Clark, who is now the executrix of his will, the principal beneficiary thereunder and the respondent in this action. The appellant, Eva Powell, was a single woman and she and William C. Clark had been friends for a great number of years, having been intimately associated in Sunday-school, church, and other religious work, but she was not related to him in any way. There is also a suggestion in the record of a courtship attempted to be carried on by Mr.…