Partin v. De Cordova, 4441
| Decision Date | 26 February 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 4441,4441 |
| Citation | 464 S.W.2d 956 |
| Parties | Jimmy PARTIN III, Administrator of the Estate of Lewis de Cordova, Appellant, v. Virginia de CORDOVA et al., Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Yates & Yates, Edmund C. Yates, A. L. (Dusty) Rhodes, Abilene, for appellant.
Scarborough, Black, Tarpley & Scarborough, Davis Scarborough, Abilene, for appellee.
Jimmy Partin III, Administrator of the Estate of Lewis de Cordova, as plaintiff brought this suit against Virginia de Cordova and four insurance companies to recover the net proceeds of five insurance policies on the life of the said Lewis de Cordova who had been the husband of Virginia de Cordova prior to the time of their divorce. Plaintiff's claim is based upon a property settlement agreement between the parties to the de Cordova divorce proceeding. The defendant, Virginia de Cordova, answered claiming the proceeds in dispute because she was the named beneficiary in the policies. The insurance companies each tendered the respective amounts due on the policies into court, less policy loans, and were by agreement dismissed from the suit. The trial was before the court without a jury upon an agreed statement of and judgment was rendered for Virginia de Cordova in the amount of $56,143.33, the amount of the funds in dispute. Jimmy Partin III, Administrator, has appealed.
The agreed statement of facts shows that Virginia Ruth Hill and Lewis de Cordova were married in August of 1961; that Lewis de Cordova filed suit in the Domestic Relations Court of Taylor County seeking a divorce from Virginia de Cordova, and a divorce was granted on September 16, 1969; that the parties reached a property settlement agreement which was reduced to writing and filed with the District Clerk of Taylor County. The property settlement recited the permanent separation of the parties, the pendency of the suit for divorce, existence of property, and a desire to divide such community property. The property settlement provided that Virginia de Cordova should take as her separate property a 1967 Pontiac automobile together with all her clothing and personal effects; that Lewis de Cordova should take as his separate property all other community assets including but not limited to the equity in the home at 326 Woodlawn in Abilene, and that Lewis de Cordova should personally assume and discharge all community obligations and debts, including but not limited to the debt secured by a mortgage on the Pontiac automobile taken by Virginia de Cordova. The divorce judgment found the settlement fair and equitable and approved it.
One of the insurance policies listed, the proceeds of which are here in question, was dated April 20, 1960, more than a year before the marriage of Lewis de Cordova and Virginia de Cordova. Thereafter on December 22, 1964, the beneficiary of this policy was changed to Virginia de...
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Hennig v. Didyk
...(citing Pitts v. Ashcraft, 586 S.W.2d 685, 696 (Tex.Civ.App.-Corpus Christi 1979, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Partin v. de Cordova, 464 S.W.2d 956, 956–57 (Tex.Civ.App.-Eastland 1971, writ ref'd)). In Gillespie, a former wife sued the insurance company of her deceased former husband, claiming she w......
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