Bazzell v. Endriss

WARD, J.

This action for declaratory relief and to quiet title involves conflicting claims to the proceeds of a life insurance policy in the sum of $1,000, issued to R. C. Endriss, in which the mother of the insured was named as beneficiary. Endriss died on June 6, 1938, and the mother less than two

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months thereafter. Plaintiff, a sister of the insured, as the executrix of the mother’s estate, brought this action against the insured’s surviving widow who claims a half interest in the policy by reason of the fact that premiums thereon were paid with community funds and that she had not consented to a gift of the policy to the mother. The trial court found the facts to be in accordance with this contention and gave judgment for the widow, from which plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.

It is the contention of appellant that the evidence shows the insured was indebted to his mother in an amount exceeding the value of the policy, and that under such circumstances there could be no gift of the policy.

The insured and defendant were married in 1918, and the policy was issued in 1929. The widow testified that all premiums were paid from earnings of the insured’s business. In

Union Mutual Life Ins. Co.

v.

Broderick,

196 Cal. 497, 507 [238 Pac. 1034], the court said: “It is no doubt the settled law of this state that, where the premiums on an insurance policy issued on the life of a husband after coverture are paid entirely from community funds, the policy is a community asset, and, in view of the provisions of section 172 of the Civil Code, the husband cannot make a valid gift thereof without the written consent of the wife; and that where the husband attempts to do so, by naming a third party as beneficiary, the transaction as to the wife’s share is voidable and subject to her right of revocation.” This view of the law was also held in

Mundt

v.

Connecticut Life Ins. Co.,