Williams v. Hodge

• Decision Date: 23 May 1932
• Docket Number: 30066
• Citation: 141 So. 905,163 Miss. 809
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: WILLIAMS et ux. v. HODGE et al

141 So. 905

163 Miss. 809

WILLIAMS et ux. v. HODGE et al

No. 30066

Supreme Court of Mississippi

May 23, 1932

Division B

1 COURTS.

Where all parties interested in proceeds of war risk policy were before court in suit to compel administrator to turn amount thereof over to beneficiaries, court had jurisdiction to settle all questions between parties'.

2. ARMY AND NAVY. Where insured was totally disabled from time of his discharge until his death, fund accruing on war risk policy during such period, though not collected by him, became part of his estate.

The proceeds of war risk insurance policy accruing during total disability of insured and before his death, though not collected by him, became the property of his estate and descended to his heirs at law as other property, in absence of some other testamentary disposition.

3. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS.

Insured's parents recovering proceeds of war risk policy belonging to insured's estate held entitled to allowance for amount properly expended in prosecution of suit.

4. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS.

Money expended in recovering proceeds of war risk policy belonging to insured's estate should be prorated among interested parties on basis of their respective recovery.

HON. A B. AMIS, SR., Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Jones county, HON. A. B. AMIS, SR. Chancellor.

Suit by R. L. Williams and wife against W. H. Hodge, administrator of the estate of Walter B. Williams, and others. From an adverse judgment, the petitioners appeal. Reversed in part, and affirmed in part.

Reversed in part, and affirmed in part.

Leon Hendrick, of Jackson, for appellants.

It will be seen that the statute, section 402, apparently contemplated that the designated beneficiary who survived the insured would take an interest, which under ordinary rules would be a vested interest, in all the unpaid installments.

Reivich v. United States, 25 F.2d 671.

Provided that insurance hereafter revived under this section and section 309, by reason of permanent and total disability or by death of the insured, shall be paid only to the insured, his widow, child or children, dependent mother or father, and in the order named unless otherwise designated by the insured during his lifetime or by law, will and testament.

Amendment to section 305 of the Act of July 2, 1926 (44 Stat. 799, 800).

That soldier had rightfully designated his mother. After his death an award had been made her, and she had been paid some installments, and others had become due to her, if the policy is to be deemed as not having lapsed. It is not easily conceivable why Congress, as a condition of doing what it thought was plain justice as to this policy, should intend to take these past-due payments away from her, if living, or from her successors, if dead, and give them to some one else. It seems to us that the natural inference is the other way, and that the new disposition of these policies was to be made only in case where the soldier had made no disposition (or, perhaps, where his disposition had failed and the law must designate). We are satisfied that the restrictive effect of "shall be paid to" should be confined to nondesignate policies.

United States v. Wooten, 25 F. (2 Ed.) 678.

Installments due under a policy of War Risk Insurance, which had accrued prior to beneficiary's death, but remained unpaid at that time, became invested in the beneficiary and passed according to his will.

271 F. 486.

Installments accumulated prior to the soldier's death became a vested interest, and should go to the beneficiaries under the policy as contemplated by the solidier's designation, desire and will, which was never changed during his lifetime.

A reasonable compensation for services rendered the estate after decedent's death is payable out of the estate.

23 C. J. 310.

Welch & Cooper, of Laurel, for appellees.

If a debt is due a person before his death and is unpaid at the time of his death, such debt is an asset of the person's estate and goes in the case of intestacy in accordance with our laws of descent and distribution.

Under section 500 of the World War Veterans Act of 1924, whatever insurance accrued to the insured, and not paid to him, or due between the date of his discharge in June, 1919, and the date of his death in 1929, became payable to, and is part of, the assets of his estate. And such payments are payable to the administrator of the estate who can maintain an action to recover the same upon the policy, without being required to make as a party plaintiff the administrator of the estate of the beneficiary, although the beneficiary survived the insured and died before receiving all of the monthly payments.

Gordon v. United States, 37 F.2d 925; Hegg v. United States, 21 F.2d 622.

By the amendment of March 4, 1925, the rule, which upon the happening of the contingencies named in the prior acts, limited the benefit of the unpaid installments to persons within the designated class of permittees, was abandoned, and "The estate of the insured" was wholly substituted as the payee. All installments whether accruing before or after the death of the beneficiary named in the certificate of insurance, as a result, became assets of the estate of the insured upon the instant of his death, to be distributed to the heirs of the insured in accordance with the intestacy laws of the state of his residence, such heirs to be determined as of the date of his death, and not as of the date of the death of the beneficiary. The state courts, with almost entire unanimity, have reached the same conclusion.

Singleton v. Check, 284 U.S. 493, 76 L.Ed. 419.

The claim for the expenses or the indebtedness was not probated in accordance with law. The formal probate of the claim was not made until some five months after the decree in this case. The federal acts declare that the proceeds of these policies of insurance are absolutely exempt from the debts of the deceased.

The court was perfectly correct in dismissing the suit so far as these expenses are concerned without prejudice to the right of Mr. and Mrs. Williams to present these claims in a proper way.

OPINION

Ethridge, P. J.

R. L. Williams and his wife filed a petition in the chancery court of Jones county against Mrs. Opal Williams, individually, and as guardian of Delors Williams, and W. H. Hodge, administrator of the estate of Walter B. Williams, who was a World War veteran, and who had a war risk insurance policy upon his life, with benefits payable to himself during his life, and, in case of his death, the proceeds of said policy were to go equally to Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Williams.

It was alleged that Walter B. Williams died on the 14th day of August, 1927, without ever having changed the beneficiaries in said policy. He died of tuberculosis which was alleged...