Winterhalter v. Workmen's Guarantee Fund Assn. of San Francisco (1888) · DecisionDepot

Winterhalter v. Workmen's Guarantee Fund Assn. of San Francisco

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Supreme Court Mar 14, 1888 No. No. 9913Published

Before: Searls

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Holding. The court held that where a decedent bequeaths insurance proceeds to a beneficiary through a general residuary clause in a will, the executor is the proper party to recover the funds to satisfy the decedent's debts and liabilities.

Issues

Whether the executor or the named legatee is entitled to recover insurance proceeds when the policy is payable 'subject to my will' and the will contains a general bequest of all property after payment of debts.

Disposition. affirmed

Synopsis

Life Insurance—Payment Subject to Disposition of Will—Executor may Maintain Action. —Where a policy of life insurance does not designate any particular beneficiary, but provides that it shall be paid subject to the will of the insured, and the latter by his will bequeaths his entire estate to a particular person, subject to the payment of his debts, the executor of the insured is the proper person to whom the insurance money should be paid, and he may maintain an action therefor in his own name without joining the legatee.

Searls, C. J. —Defendant is a corporation, and on the sixteenth day of March, 1880, plaintiff’s testator, Fritz Hoffmeister, became a member of such corporation, and for a valuable consideration received therefrom its certain promise, agreement, and certificate in writing, in the words and figures following, viz.:—

“ Workmen’s Guarantee Fund Association of San Francisco, California. No. 69.

“ This is to certify that Fritz Hoffmeister is a member of the Workmen’s Guarantee Fund Association of San Francisco, California, and as such is entitled to participate in the guarantee fund, to the extent of one dollar to each member of said association in good standing, at the death of said Fritz Hoffmeister, provided the number of members at that time shall not exceed one thousand. Said sum of one thousand dollars or less, at his death, shall be paid to-, subject to his will.

“ This certificate is issued upon the expressed condition that said Fritz Hoffmeister shall comply with all the laws, rules, and requirements which are now or may be hereafter enacted by the Workmen’s Guarantee Fund Association.

“ In witness whereof, the Workmen’s Guarantee Fund Association has caused this certificate to be signed by its president and secretary, and the seal to be attested this [247]sixteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty.

“Workmen’s Guarantee Fund Association of San Francisco, California.

“ (Seal corporation.) P. Veasey, Vice-President.

“ E. M. Reading, Secretary.”

Hoffmeister never filled the blank in the certificate by inserting the name of a beneficiary, but died on the fourth day of October, 1882, leaving a last will, whereby he gave, devised, and bequeathed to his mother, Louisa Hoffmeister, after payment of all his debts and liabilities, all his estate and effects. Plaintiff was named as executor of the will, which has been regularly admitted to probate, etc.

Defendant answered, admitting its liability to the extent of one thousand dollars, but claimed that testator had by his last will designated his mother, Louisa Hoffmeister, as his beneficiary, and the person to whom said sum should be paid in the event of his death, and asked that said Louisa be made a party to the action, which was done.

Winterhalter v. Workmen's Guarantee Fund Assn. of San Francisco

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