Freitas v. Freitas

THE COURT.

The plaintiff in this case is the widow of Manuel T. Freitas, deceased. The defendants, Manuel F. Freitas, Jr., Mary Freitas Lopez, Francisco Freitas, and Anna Freitas Nula are the children of said deceased by a former marriage. The defendant Unica Portugueza de Estada da California is a beneficiary corporation. The complaint in substance alleged, and the trial court in effect found, that the plaintiff was induced to marry Manuel T. Freitas, since deceased, by an antenuptial agreement, wherein he promised the plaintiff that if she would marry him he would make her the beneficiary of a policy of life insurance in the sum of one thousand dollars which he then held and which had been issued to him by the corporation defendant. Upon his marriage to the plaintiff Freitas, with the intent and purpose of performing his antenuptial promise, caused the plaintiff to be named as the beneficiary in the policy of insurance, and thereupon delivered the same to her. Subsequently he secured possession of the policy and, without the consent or knowledge of the plaintiff, caused the children above mentioned to be substituted as beneficiaries, and they were the beneficiaries named in the policy at the time of his death.

The corporation defendant did not defend against the action, hut deposited in court the amount called for in the policy subject to a determination of the conflicting claims of the plaintiff and the other defendants.

[18]

Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, from which the individual defendants alone have appealed.

The demurrer of these last-named defendants to the complaint was rightly overruled. Having paid the fund in controversy into court, the corporation defendant in effect waived any defense it might have had against either or both of the conflicting claimants; and being apparently satisfied with the lower court’s adjudication of the controversy, it is of no consequence whether or not the complaint stated a cause of action against the corporation.

(Jory

v.

Supreme Council etc.,

105 Cal. 20, [45 Am. St. Rep. 17, 26 L. R. A. 733, 38 Pac. 524];