Mundt v. Connecticut General Life Insurance Co.

GOODELL, J., pro

tem

.

In September, 1936, Martin C. Wrenn took out a $2,000 policy of insurance on his life in the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, designating his mother, the appellant, as beneficiary. In November, 1936, he died, and the beneficiary brought this action on the policy, joining as defendants the company and the insured’s widow, individually and as administratrix of his estate. The widow filed a cross-complaint, claiming half the insurance money by virtue of her community right, the premiums having been paid out of the insured’s earnings. The insurance company paid the $2,000 into court, and, on stipulation, half thereof was paid to the beneficiary. From a judgment awarding the remaining $1,000 to the widow the beneficiary has appealed.

Martin C. and Eleanor Wrenn were married in 1920 and continued to be husband and wife until his death. From August, 1932, until the entry of an interlocutory decree in November, 1932, a suit for divorce was pending between them, and while they were separated they entered into a property settlement. Pursuant to this agreement some $3,500 in bank deposits and certain personal effects were forthwith put into the wife’s name, and the real property, together with some personal property, was put into the husband’s

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name. A few days after the interlocutory judgment was entered the spouses became reconciled and resumed marital relations.

As one of the grounds for her claim that all the insurance money should go to her, the appellant invokes the provision in the agreement that all property

thereafter

acquired by either party should be and forever remain the sole and separate property of the party acquiring or receiving it. Appellant argues, first, that this provision remained binding and effective up to the time of her son’s death, and that it bars his widow from asserting her community claim to half the insurance money, and, second “that the evidence which proved the reconciliation at the same time disproved the intent of the parties to restore the property to its community status’’. True, the evidence shows that when the parties became reconciled nothing was done to restore the property (divided pursuant to the agreement) to its former position, but the present litigation is not concerned with that property. The policy in question was given vitality by premiums paid with money earned by the husband almost four years after the reconciliation, so it would seem that the executed parts of the agreement have no particular bearing on the present controversy. The provisions with respect to after-acquired property were," of course, executory. That a reconciliation, followed by the resumption of marital relations, operates to cancel the executory provisions of such a contract seems to be settled. (9 Cal. Jur. 827;