Court Opinion

ID: 9588123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:30:25.180463+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:51.378889
License: Public Domain

Duckworth, Chief Justice,
dissenting. The property settlement contract awarded various described properties to each party, among which were two insurance policies for $1,000 each on the life of Mrs. Hudson, which Mr. Hudson obligated to deliver to her. This fact shows that they were both conscious at the time of the value of life insurance policies. The very next sentence is a release by her to him of all claims she now has or may hereafter have to “any and all other property of every kind or character not described in this contract nor claimed herein by Mrs. Hudson.” (Italics mine).
Indisputably Mrs. Hudson had not therein claimed the policy here involved, and this policy was unquestionably her property at that time, and she expressly released and relinquished all claims she then had or may thereafter have to all property, which would include this policy, to Mr. Hudson. This was a valid assignment of all her claims then or thereafter to said policy to Mr. Hudson, and the insurance company was bound to respect this assignment.
In addition to the foregoing plain right and title conferred upon Mr. Hudson by terms of the contract, subsequent conduct of both parties shows that they so understood it. She did not pay premiums thereon which was essential to its being kept in force, thus showing she thought the contract had divested her of title thereto. On the other hand he continued to pay the *736premiums of $91.16 per year for eight years, totaling $729.28, while knowing that in the absence of the contract such payments were for her benefit and not his, and knowing she could remove him as beneficiary therein at will. To say he or any normal person would thus spend his money voluntarily for the benefit of a former wife whom he had divorced and with whom he had made a property settlement is absurd and ignores human nature.
To sustain the argument that he might have paid the premiums because he hoped she would let him remain the beneficiary, and that she would die before its maturity, it seems to me would require that it be first found that he was utterly incompetent. Since this endowment policy was more valuable than either of the other two life policies, each in amounts the same as this policy, would she not have required him to deliver it instead of one of the two she did require him to deliver to her? How could she have thought of them and not of this one? If he merely wanted the benefit of the possibility of receiving the proceeds of a policy as beneficiary would he not have chosen one of the others with much smaller premiums for the same possible benefit? To attempt to avoid the plain terms of the contract where these parties set forth in their own chosen language their respective rights in the face of the foregoing solid reasons for enforcing the contract as written, upon the assertion that her “releasing and relinquishing” to him “all claims she now has or may have” does not amount to a conveyance thereof, requires ignoring the intention of the parties as disclosed by the contract as well as a misconception of the words just quoted.
Furthermore, the very answer she filed in this case shows that she understands the word “claim” means title. In paragraph 2 she admits that she had notified the petitioner “that she claims ownership of the described policy as owner thereof.”
I believe courts should give full effect to valid contracts of the parties. The sole purpose of this contract was to put at rest all claims of either to property therein released to the other. The judgment should be affirmed.
I am authorized by Mr. Justice Candler to say he concurs in this dissent.