Dell v. Varnedoe
| Decision Date | 15 May 1918 |
| Docket Number | 557. |
| Citation | 95 S.E. 977,148 Ga. 91 |
| Parties | DELL v. VARNEDOE ET AL. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
Where a fraternal insurance association pays the fund into court, and interpleads the persons claiming it, the court may award it on equitable principles and without regard to the technical defenses open to the association under regulations made by it solely for its benefit and protection. Between the adverse claimants such regulations, in a court of equity, have no effect except to aid in ascertaining the intention of the insured.
A mere volunteer beneficiary in a certificate issued by a mutual benefit association upon the life of one of its members has no vested interest therein prior to the death of the member.
Where a sister made a loan of money to her brother, upon the condition that the money would be repaid at a fixed time with interest thereon in excess of the lawful rate, and upon the further condition that a certificate of insurance in a fraternal benefit association would be taken by the brother upon his life and carried during his life for the benefit of the sister, who was to be named as the beneficiary therein and where the loan, with interest, was repaid by the brother according to the agreement, the sister, named as beneficiary had not such vested interest in the certificate of insurance as would prevent an equitable assignment thereof for value by the brother, if in the first instance she did not stand in the position of a mere volunteer by reason of having been a party to a usurious contract.
Where subsequently to the payment of the loan, the brother married, and agreed with his wife that if she would pay out of her personal funds the premiums upon the certificate of insurance, as they fell due, he (the insured) would cause her to be named as the beneficiary in the policy, with the right to collect the full proceeds thereof upon his death, and where the insured, in accordance with the agreement, designated, by his indorsement entered upon the policy, his wife as the beneficiary therein, and caused his signature to be attested by the secretary of the local camp of the benefit association, and exhibited such indorsement and attestation to the wife, but did not forward the policy with a nominal fee to the association as required by its by-laws, so as to perfect the change of beneficiary, and the wife in accordance with the agreement paid the premiums due upon the policy, the latter, in a contest with the sister over the insurance fund which had been voluntarily paid into the registry of the court by the association, was, upon the application of equitable principles, entitled to the fund.
Error from Superior Court, Evans County; W. W. Sheppard, Judge.
Interpleader by the Sovereign Camp of the Woodmen of the World against Mrs. Clara M. Varnedoe and Mrs. Sadie R. Dell. Judgment for defendant Varnedoe, and defendant Dell brings error. Affirmed.
R. D. Smith, of Tifton, and W. G. Warnell, of Claxton, for plaintiff in error.
E. C. Elmore and P. M. Anderson, both of Claxton, and A. S. Way, of Reidsville, for defendant in error.
The Sovereign Camp of the Woodmen of the World, an incorporated fraternal or mutual benefit association, filed its petition in the superior court of Evans county, for interpleader, naming Mrs. Clara M. Varnedoe, of Evans county, and Mrs. Sadie R. Dell, of Tift county, as defendants to the petition. Substantially the petition alleged that the association issued to J. A. Varnedoe its policy of insurance in the sum of $1,000 on the 18th day of May, 1911. Mrs. Sadie R. Dell, a sister of the member, was named as the beneficiary in the face of the policy. At the time the policy was issued the member was an unmarried man. About four years before his death, which occurred on the 30th day of November, 1916, he married Miss Clara M. Smith, now Mrs. Clara M. Varnedoe. On December 5, 1914, J. A. Varnedoe, the member, indicated in writing, on the back of said policy or certificate of insurance, his desire for a change of beneficiary as follows:
Following the signature of the member, and entered upon the policy, is the following indorsement:
Plaintiff's laws and by-laws required the following:
"Should a member desire to change his beneficiary or beneficiaries, he may do so upon the payment to the Sovereign Camp of a fee of twenty-five cents, with his request written on the back of his certificate, giving the name or names of such new beneficiary or beneficiaries, which sum, together with his certificate, he shall deliver to the clerk of a camp for attestation, who shall indorse thereon the fact of such payment and delivery and the date of same; and in case of the death of such member thereafter and before the issuance of a certificate payable to such new beneficiary or beneficiaries, then and in that event the amount payable upon such certificate shall be paid to such newly designated beneficiary or beneficiaries according to the terms of such member's request; and such camp clerk shall at once forward said payment and certificate to the Sovereign Clerk, and upon receipt thereof the Sovereign Clerk shall issue and return a new certificate subject to the same conditions and rate as the one surrendered, which conditions shall be a part of a new certificate, in which he shall write the name or names of the new beneficiary or beneficiaries, and shall record said change in the proper books of the Sovereign Camp."
J. A. Varnedoe did not fully comply with the laws and by-laws, "in that the request on the back of said certificate by said deceased for a change of beneficiaries was never forwarded to the Sovereign Camp." Petitioner stands indifferently between the claimants, and is willing to pay the amount due upon the policy to whomever it should be adjudged to belong. It prayed that the defendants be required to interplead, and that the petitioner be allowed to pay the insurance fund into the registry of the court, to be disposed of as the court might direct, and for appropriate relief. By order of the court the fund was paid into the registry of the court, and the contest is between the claimants.
In behalf of Mrs. Dell, the sister, it appeared that the insured entered into a contract with her by which she agreed to make a loan to him in the sum of $750, in consideration of which the insured agreed to repay the money loaned at a time fixed together with the interest thereon at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, and in addition to take out a policy of insurance in the plaintiff association for $1,000, naming her as beneficiary, and...
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