81 Mo. App. 545 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1899
This is an interpleading contest between the lawful wife and heirs of a deceased member of a fraternal beneficial order and one Anna E. Riebling, designated in the benefit certificate, which is the subject of dispute, issued upon the member’s life, as his “dependent housekeeper.” Under the laws of the order providing for the payment of the fund represented by a benefit certificate in case of a failure to designate a beneficiary therein to the heirs at law of the deceased, the trial court awarded the fund which had been paid into court to the lawful widow and heirs of the deceased member. Mrs. Riebling appealed.
The evidence adduced on the trial conclusively showed that appellant was aware of the illicit relations which she sustained to the deceased member, as appears from the following question and answer:
“Q. What, if anything, was said about being married to one another ?
“A. After living together and having children, I kept urging him to get married, and he said that he had children and he would taire care of her and them and me and mine.”
By the word “her” used in the foregoing answer the witness (appellant) evidently referred to the lawful wife of Erank Hanses, the deceased member, to whom he had been married by a formal ceremony for a number of years, and whom, after she had borne several children, he caused to be incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, and at the same time placed her children in an orphan asylum. When the latter attained