In re Reid's Estate

• Decision Date: 28 February 1934
• Docket Number: 399.
• Citation: 173 S.E. 49,206 N.C. 102
• Parties: In re REID'S ESTATE.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

173 S.E. 49

206 N.C. 102

In re REID'S ESTATE.

No. 399.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

February 28, 1934

Appeal from Superior Court, Mecklenburg County; Cowper, Special Judge.

Proceedings in the matter of the estate of Moses Reid, deceased. From the judgment rendered, Lizzie May McCulloch, executrix of the estate of Ida Reid, deceased, appeals.

Affirmed.

Moses Reid, a soldier in the United States Army during the World War, died intestate on August 23, 1920, without leaving a wife or child or issue of such. He left him surviving his father, Adolphus Reid, and his mother, Ida Reid. Adolphus Reid, the father, died on November 22, 1926, and his mother Ida, died February 22, 1932. The deceased soldier had a policy of war risk insurance in the sum of $10,000. In said policy his father and mother were both named beneficiaries. W. M. Smith is the administrator of the estate of the soldier, Moses Reid. Elijah Reid is the administrator of the estate of Adolphus Reid, the father, and Lizzie May McCulloch is the executrix named in the will of the mother, Ida Reid. The father and mother after the death of the soldier were entitled to receive a monthly installment of $28.75 each for a total of 240 months. However, neither of said beneficiaries received any installment prior to death. The Bureau of War Risk Insurance paid to the administrator of the father the aggregate monthly installments which he would have received up to the time of his death, amounting to $2,127.50. The installments the mother would have received amounting to $3,938.75 were paid to her executrix. The sum of $6,630.50 was paid to W. M. Smith, the administrator of the estate of the soldier. The children of the mother, Ida Reid, have filed a caveat to her will. The validity of the will has not yet been determined.

This proceeding was brought to determine the rights of the parties in and to the estate of the soldier. It was admitted that the only property of said estate consisted of war risk insurance and disability insurance paid by the government.

The pertinent portion of the judgment rendered was as follows "That at the date of the death of Moses Reid his distributees were Adolphus Reid, his father, and Ida Reid his mother, and as such distributees they became entitled upon his death to his personal estate. That the money now in the hands of W. M. Smith, administrator of the estate of Moses Reid, consisting entirely of insurance money from War Risk Insurance, is not subject to claims of creditors of the insured. That as to the $862.50, which was due the insured prior to his death, it belongs to the estate of the father and the estate of the mother equally. That as to the $5,768.00 received by him as the commuted value of the unpaid portion of the policy after the death of the beneficiaries it should be paid to the estate of the father and the estate of the mother respectively in such sums as are...