110 Ga. 606 | Ga. | 1900
This was a petition filed by Harry Dodd, trustee of the estate of John F. Morris, bankrupt, against his widow, Mrs. V. A. Morris, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association of New York, and the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, in which it was sought to enjoin Mrs. Morris from collecting, and the two insurance companies from paying to her, the amounts of insurance policies issued by the defendant companies upon the life of the bankrupt. The Northwestern Company paid the money due upon the policy issued by it into the registry of the court, to await the final decree of the court. Mrs/
Under the view we take of the question presented for determination, it is immaterial that the policies of insurance were transferred by the bankrupt to his wife within four months prior to the filing of his petition in bankruptcy. Upon the hearing there was no evidence submitted for the trustee that either of. the policies had any cash surrender value, either at the time of the transfer or at the time of the filing of the petition in bankruptcy, but there was much evidence in behalf of the defendants that the policies had no such value at either of the times indicated. If the policies, then, had no cash surrender value, we are of opinion that they would not vest in the trustee as assets of the bankrupt’s estate, even if no changes had been made in them, and they had, to the date of his death, remained payable to his legal representatives. The exact point was decided In re Buelow, 98 Fed. Rep. 86, where it was held: “A policy of insurance on the life of a bankrupt, which has no cash surrender value, and no value for any purpose except the contingency of its becoming valuable at the death of the bankrupt if the premiums are kept paid, does not vest in the trustee as assets of the estate, ” and the court directed the trustee to deliver the policy to the petitioners, the bankrupt and his wife. District Judge Shir as, In re Steele, 98 Fed. Bep. 78, while holding that where a bankrupt held a policy payable to himself, his heirs or legal
In Holt v. Everall, an English case, decided by the Court of Appeal, under the British bankruptcy act of 1869, reported in 34 Law Times Rep. (N. S.) 599, it appeared that in 1870 a trader effected policies of insurance on his own life. In the folloAving year, wishing his wife might have the benefit of the policies under the married Avoman’s act, he surren4ered them to the insurance company, and received, in substitution therefor, policies at the same premiums payable on the same day, and entitled to the same privileges as the former, and which provided that the sums assured should be paid to the Avife. Within two years from the date of the substituted policies the husband liquidated, dying before the discharge. The trustee claimed the insurance. It was held, that as the policies of 1870 had no surrender value, the transaction of the following year was not a settlement of property under the bankruptcy act of 1869, and that the widow
Judgment reversed.