Travis

MEMORANDUM *

Lorraine Travis sued Veterans Life Insurance Company for an alleged breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing arising from Veterans’ failure to pay Tra *708 vis proceeds from her deceased husband Neil’s accidental death policy. The district court granted summary judgment in Veterans’ favor on the ground that Neil’s death, which was related to autoerotic asphyxiation, fell within the policy’s exclusion for “intentionally self-inflicted injury.” Travis appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse.

At the time that the district court considered Veterans’ summary judgment motion, no Ninth Circuit or California case law directly addressed the question of whether death related to autoerotic asphyxiation involved “intentionally self-inflicted injury.” Although there continues to be no California case law on the issue, we now have the benefit of this court’s opinion in Padfield v. AIG Life Insurance Co., 290 F.3d 1121 (9th Cir.2002). In Pad-field, we concluded that the typical consequences of autoerotic asphyxiation are not “injuries” and thus recovery for an insured’s death related to autoerotic asphyxiation was not precluded by a…