Hawkins v. Mccalla

• Citation: 95 Ga. 192,22 S.E. 141
• Parties: HAWKINS. v. McCALLA et al.
• Decision Date: 21 December 1894
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

22 S.E. 141

95 Ga. 192

HAWKINS.

v.McCALLA et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Dec. 21, 1894.

Administration or Decedent's Estates?/span>Assets —Death of Employe?/span>Rights of Widow.

1. Where an accident insurance company underwrites the risk of an employer, and by its policy undertakes to indemnify him against loss by reason of negligent injuries to employes, this constitutes no contract between the employes and the insurance company. In case of the homicide of an employe, his widow is entitled to recover therefor, and, if the insurance company chooses to admit its liability and pay to the employer the amount due on the policy in consequence of such homicide, the sum so paid constitutes in no sense assets of the estate of the deceased employe, and therefore an equitable petition filed by creditors of such deceased employe to enjoin the payment of such sum to his widow is not maintainable.

2. If, at the death of an employe, any sums were due to him by the employer, either for wages or otherwise, such debts are assets of the deceased, and may be reached in the ordinary course of administration.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from superior court, Rockdale county; Richard H. Clark, Judge.

Action by Isaac C. Hawkins against the Union Paper-Mills Company and others. From a judgment dismissing the action on demurrer, plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

J. N. Glenn, for plaintiff in error.

J. R. Irwin and A. C. McCalla, for defendants in error.

SIMMONS, C. J. The petition of Isaac C. Hawkins against the Union Paper-Mills Company, A. C. McCalla, and Mrs. Hayden Hawkins was demurred to by the defendants separately, the demurrers were sustained, and to this ruling the plaintiff excepted. It appears from the petition that the plaintiff was a creditor of William Hawkins, a deceased employe of the Union Paper-Mills Company, who, while at work in the service of the company, received injuries which caused his death; that the company, in order "to meet any risk or liability for accidents caused by negligence on the part of itself or its employes, had taken out accidental or other policies of insurance, and, at the time of the injury and death of said William, had a policy or policies in its favor to cover its liability for such death, " and "to meet this liability it negotiated with and obtained from the insurance companies with which it took the policies $450 or other sums to pay for the injuries and death of said William." The petition also alleges that the paper-mills...