70 Mo. App. 617 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1897
The case involves a construction of sections 5851 and 5854, Revised Statutes, 1889. The former section reads as follows: “It shall be lawful for any married woman, by herself and in her name, or in the name of any third person, with his assent as her trustee, to cause to be insured, for her sole use, the life of her husband, for any definite period or for the term of his natural life; and in case of her surviving such period or term, the sum or net amount of the insurance becoming due and payable by the terms of the insurance shall be payable to her and for her own use, free from the claims of the representatives of her husband or of any of his creditors; but when the premiums paid in any year-out of the funds or property of the husband shall exceed five hundred dollars, such exemption from
The latter section is as follows: “Any policy of insurance heretofore or hereafter made by any insurance company on the life of any person, expressed to be for the benefit of any married woman, whether the same be effected by herself or by her husband, or by any third person in her behalf, shall inure to her separate use and benefit, and that of her children, if any, independently of her husband and of his creditors and representatives, and also independently of such third person effecting the same in her behalf, his creditors and representatives; and a trustee may be appointed by the circuit court for the county in which such married woman resides, to hold and manage the interest of any -married woman in such policy, or the proceeds thereof. In the event of the death of such married woman before her husband, the said policy shall inure to the children of such marriage to the exclusion of creditors and executors and administrators of said husband, any technical words or phrases in the policy to the contrary notwithstanding.”
When a wife of an insolvent husband insures his life, or she is the beneficiary in the policy, it ipso facto becomes her property. A creditor has no interest in it, or its proceeds, when collected. If it has been paid for by funds of the husband, such funds, in excess of the exemptions, have been wrongfully diverted and may be claimed by the creditor, but he has no right to appropriate the policy which never belonged to his debtor.
The foregoing construction of the statute leaves no consequence to be attached to plaintiff’s allegations of the design and intent on the part of the deceased to
By reference to briefs of counsel it will be seen that several authorities on the subject of claims of creditors on insurance taken by the wife or for the wife and paid for out of the husband’s funds have been cited. None of these construe the statute as it now stands on the points in controversy here, and for that reason we have not referred to them in the course of this opinion.
The result of our conclusion being that plaintiffs as creditors have no right on anything more than the