Opinion ID: 1617265
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: was junior a resident of his father's household?

Text: My quarrel with the majority begins with the fact that Junior was not living with his father and was not a member of his father's household when he was killed. If he had lived there just a part of the time, just a tiny fraction of the time on any permanent or settled basis, I might feel otherwise. But that simply was not the case. He never lived with his father. [6] Mrs. Mary Frances Williams and Nedra, both of whom were represented by able attorneys, and both of whom knew they stood to lose several thousand dollars by their testimony, testified that Junior never lived with his father. At most, Junior had upon rare occasion spent the night there. Four of his close personal friends, who were in and out of the Mary Frances Williams home at 59 Bennett Drive several times a week from 1986, until his death, never knew of Junior spending a night with his father. The only contradictory testimony came from Williams, whose credibility was undermined by his dishonest conduct and personal interest in this case. His claim for benefits was deceitful. He forged the names of his former wife and daughters to the release, and also endorsed their names on the $20,000 check from Aetna; and, after paying his attorney, he pocketed the remaining $13,334, most of which was their money. Williams obviously knew all this; he was represented by an attorney in this entire transaction. [7] When his deposition was taken in Mrs. Williams' lawsuit with Maryland, Williams took the fifth amendment numerous times when questioned about these transactions. When Williams testified before the chancellor, he admitted that he had lied under oath at least three times during this deposition. When one examines all the positive, unequivocal testimony and evidence that Junior never lived for any period of time with his father from two people of modest means who knew the facts and who stood to lose several thousand dollars by such testimony, and four close personal friends, in opposition to which we only have Williams, I hope my incredulity will be pardoned. Williams, an admitted forger, embezzler from his own family, and perjurer, in a trial in which he had a personal financial stake, had a reliability quotient on a scale from one to ten of about one-tenth of one percent. How anyone could believe his testimony that Junior moved in with him for two or three weeks, when the remaining evidence is positively to the contrary, escapes me. [8] But let us for a moment concede Williams' testimony as being accurate. The longest Junior stayed with him was about two weeks, after which Junior moved out, and he did not know where he moved. If Junior did move in with him because of a huff with his mother, it was temporary and shortly abandoned, after which the uncontradicted testimony is that he lived with his mother at their home on 59 Bennett Drive until he was killed, each and every day. On the day he was killed, he called his mother at the hospital, told her he and Willie Monroe were at home cooking breakfast. From this record, the last person who saw him alive was Mrs. Williams. He came to her hospital room that Saturday night with Willie, and told her he was leaving, that he and Willie were going back home to wash some clothes and go to a concert. Williams, of course, knew Junior was living with his mother when he was killed, because he gave the information on Junior's death certificate, giving 59 Bennett Drive as his residence. There simply is not one word of evidence that, at the time of his death, Junior was a resident at his father's home or a member of his father's household. Clearly, these words have to be stretched beyond any meaning to claim that Junior, in fact, was living or was a resident at his father's, much less being a member of his father's household. Aetna never contended, nor do I, that being a resident of one household is a law of physics thereby excluding any possibility of, at the same time, being a resident of another. Miller v. United States Fidelity & Guar. Co., 127 N.J. Super. 37, 316 A.2d 51 (1974). Under well-settled principles of law, however, Junior was not, in fact, at the time of his death a resident of his father's household. Every single case cited in the majority opinion which held that, despite a minor child's being a resident of one parent's household, he could still have been a resident of the other's, under the facts of that case had some basis in fact to so hold. [9] Other cases with facts far more favorable to the insured than here have held to the contrary [10] and denied coverage. Every case with no more factual support than this one has held the child was not a resident of the non-custodial parent's household. I invite everyone to read them. If the majority is holding that, under the facts of this case Junior was, on May 30, 1987, in fact, a resident of the same household as his father, it stands alone.