Ratte v. Forand

• Decision Date: 04 January 1938
• Citation: 12 N.E.2d 102,299 Mass. 185
• Parties: RATTE v. FORAND et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

299 Mass. 185

12 N.E.2d 102

RATTE

v.FORAND et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Bristol.

Jan. 4, 1938.

Bill by Yvonne Ratté, administratrix of the estate of Marie Ratté, deceased, against Yvonne Forand and husband. From a final decree dismissing the bill after the sustaining of a demurrer, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Appeal from Superior Court, Bristol County.

Fergus J. McOsker, of Providence, R. I., for appellant.

G. L. Sisson, of Fall River, for appellees.

LUMMUS, Justice.

The plaintiff appeals from a final decree dismissing the bill after the sustaining of a demurrer. Her case is this. She is the administratrix of the estate of Marie Ratté. In 1927, at the request of the defendants, who are husband and wife, the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company issued an insurance policy, apparently on the life of Marie Ratté though not so expressly stated, without her knowledge, through false representations that the female defendant was a niece of Marie Ratté, and by concealment of the fact that she had an incurable cancer. After her death the defendants collected the proceeds of the policy. In 1933 the same thing happened with respect to another policy issued by the Prudential Insurance Company of America. At some time later a similar thing happened with respect to the last-named company, but no beneficiary was named in the policy and the collection of the proceeds awaits the determination of this suit.

So far as the plaintiff's case depends upon the policies already mentioned, she states no case for relief. Her intestate did not take out the policies, furnish the premiums for them, or know anything about them. If the defendants had no insurable interest in the life of Marie Ratté, and obtained the policies from the insurers by fraud, that was a matter between the defendants and the insurers, which gave no rights to Marie Ratté or her estate.

The bill, however, makes the following allegations about another policy: In 1932 Marie Ratté obtained a policy of life insurance in the amount of $300 from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, with no beneficiary named. By false and fraudulent representations that she had paid all the premiums and was liable for the expenses of the last illness of Marie Ratté and for the expenses of her burial, the defendant Yvonne Forand induced the insurer to pay her the amount of the policy. The defendant Leon Forand, her husband, is not charged with complicity in her fraud. The bill alleges upon information and belief that the money received upon all the policies mentioned in the bill was ‘spent or disbursed or used in the improvement of a certain dwelling house and garage owned by the respondents.’ As we interpret that ambiguous allegation, it does not assert that the $300 received from the insurer in discharge of this policy was invested in the real estate rather than ‘spent’ for undisclosed purposes. The plaintiff does not show that she has not an adequate remedy at law in an action against Yvonne Forand for money had and received, even though it be assumed that under some provision of the policy the insurer discharged its obligation in paying her. See Cataldo v. Woodside, Mass., 4 N.E.2d...