Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, a Corporation v. James Lee Neaves, Jr., and Geneva S. Gambrell, and Related Counterclaim and Cross-Claim

This is a declaratory judgment action by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to determine whether it correctly paid the entire proceeds of a life insurance policy to defendant-appellee Geneva Gambrell who was one of two designated beneficiaries. Defendant-appellant Neaves claims he was the second designee. The district court granted Gambrell’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and both the insurer and Neaves appeal. The issue we must decide is whether Geneva Gambrell’s conduct in inducing Metropolitan to pay all of the proceeds to her constituted a sufficient connection with the state of California to support the exercise of personal jurisdiction over her in that state. The case is set in a factual scenario with some bizarre twists.

The insured in the case was Ronald Gambrell, Geneva Gambrell’s son. He worked for the United States Office of Personnel Management in California, and he was insured under a group life insurance policy issued to that federal office by the appellant, Metropolitan Life, pursuant to the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Act of 1954, as amended, 5 U.S.C. §§ 8701 et seq. (1982). Ronald Gambrell died on August 28, 1985 in California.…