McGuire v. Reliance Standard Life Insur. Co. 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 786 (6^th Cir. Jan. 18, 2000) (Unpublshed).-At issue in this case was language in a life insurance policy that excluded coverage for "any loss ... to which sickness or disease is a contributing factor."  McGuire, personal representative of the estate of her fiancé Lawrence Wallace, appealed from the entry of summary judgment in favor of defendant.  McGuire claimed benefits for accidental death benefits under an insurance policy Wallace obtained through his employer.  This court affirmed on the grounds that the evidence upon which Reliance relied—the police report, the death certificate, the autopsy reports, prior medical records, and a peer review evaluation of the cause of death—did show that Mr. Wallace’s arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease was a contributing cause of his drowning death.

This court pointed out that the uncertainty of the extent to which heart disease contributed to Wallace's death would be material only if the exclusionary language precluded coverage when the disease was a direct proximate cause of the loss, but not when the disease was a "but for" or "remote" cause.  Here, any valid showing that disease was a "contributing cause" was sufficient to justify exclusion.