Central State Bank v. Edwards

111 S.W.2d 873, 21 Tenn. App. 418, 1937 Tenn. App. LEXIS 46
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 8, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 111 S.W.2d 873 (Central State Bank v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Central State Bank v. Edwards, 111 S.W.2d 873, 21 Tenn. App. 418, 1937 Tenn. App. LEXIS 46 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

DeWITT, J.

This controversy is between the Central State Bank of Lexington, complainant, and Mrs. Loraine E. Edwards, widow of C. W. Edwards, deceased, defendant, over the right to a fund in the registry of the chancery court in this cause, paid in under a cross-bill of interpleader by the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. Each of said parties' claims the whole fund — the bank by assignment by C. W. Edwards and Mrs. Edwards of four policies of insurance upon his life issued by said company, and pledge thereof by C. W. Edwards as collateral security for loans made to him by the bank; Mrs. Edwards as the beneficiary originally designated in the policies. The fund amounts to $8,482.25.

The original bill was filed by the bank on May 28, 1932, while C. ~W. Edwards was living and he, Mrs. Edwards, and the insurance company were made defendants. Issues were made by appropriate pleadings, the facts were stipulated in writing, but while the cause was being heard in April, 1934, C. W. Edwards died. The cause was revived as to his widow and children. The chancellor appointed an administrator ad litem of the estate of C. W. Edwards and a guardian ad litem for his minor children. In the original bill the bank claimed the absolute title to the policies under an alleged sale and purchase of them made by it in November, 1931, under provision in the notes of C. W. Edwards;' and as it had demanded of the insurer the cash surrender value and a refusal to pay was based on objections made by Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, the bank prayed for a recovery of such cash surrender value. After the death of Mr. Edwards, the bank filed a supplemental bill claiming the whole of the proceeds of the' insurance policies on the ground that they were as *421 signed and pledged for payment of a sum larger than said proceeds, and that haying become the owner of the policies by the aforesaid sale, it was entitled to all of the proceeds. In the original and supplemental bills the complainant prayed for an attachment of “all the right, title, claim, interest, and estate which the defendants C. W. Edwards and wife, Mrs. Loraine E. Edwards, have or make to the aforesaid insurance policies.” Bond being given, the attachment was levied by service of garnishment on the insurance commissioner of the state. The defendants Mr. and Mrs. Edwards had resided in the state of Arkansas since July, 1920.

After issues were made under the supplemental bill and subsequent pleadings, testimony was taken in the form of depositions of Mrs. Edwards and R. A. Lewis, the president of complainant bank. The record presents little, if any, controversy over the facts. The questions of rights arising out of these facts have been ably presented and argued.

Upon the hearing the chancellor was of opinion and decreed as follows:

(1) That the bank have a recovery against the estate of C. W. Edwards for the aggregate amount of two of the three notes sued on in this cause (the principal of all the notes being about $18,000) including interest; the same to be credited by usury therein included, to be ascertained upon a reference ordered.

(2) That the bank, by its allegations in the bill, and under the proof, is estopped to deny that at the time the original bill was filed Mr. and Mrs. Edwards had any interest in the policies of insurance, or that Mrs. Edwards now has any interest in the proceeds.

(3) That a note, numbered 5075, dated June 8, 1916, for $2,616.67, represented the only debt for which the parties intended that the policies be pledged as security; and that the bank was entitled, out of the proceeds, only to said principal sum of $2,616.67, plus interest from June 8, 1916, to March 1, 1917, the date of maturity of the note; and a further sum equal to the aggregate of premiums on said policies' paid by the bank, less any dividends thereon received by it - — the amount to be determined upon a reference.

(4) That the balance of the fund then remaining, and after the payment of costs, be paid over to Mrs. Loraine E. Edwards. A lien was declared thereon for fees of her' counsel.

From this decree, both parties have appealed and assigned errors.

On June 8, 1916, C. "W. Edwards held as the insured four policies ■ of life insurance, issued by the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, as follows: One for $2,500, dated September 21, 1905; two for $1,000 and $1,500, respectively, dated February 28, 1912; one for $3,000 dated January 23, 1914. The beneficiary named in each of these policies was Mrs. Loraine E. Edwards, his wife, if living, *422 otherwise the executors, administrators, or assigns of the insured,. Each policy contained the following provisions:

“If not assigned, this policy may be returned to the Company at its office in Newark, New Jersey, with the insured’s written request for the appropriate indorsement of the policy by the Company:
“(1) To have the beneficiary changed. This change may be made at any time and from time to time while the policy is in force, or within one month from default in premium payments.”

Also the following provision:

“No assignment of this policy shall affect the Company until it shall have received written notice thereof.”

None of the policies contain any provision that the insured might assign the policy without the consent of the beneficiary.

On June 8, 1916, C. W. Edwards, then a merchant and dealer in cotton, at Lexington, executed and delivered to the complainant Central State Bank two notes, numbered 5074 and 5075, respectively, for $2,616.67 each, aggregating $5,233.34, both of which were due and payable on January 1, 1917. They were executed for a loan that day for money used by the said C. W. Edwards in part for payment of past-due indebtedness to said bank, and in part for financing his mercantile business, which it is stipulated was the sole support of himself and his family, consisting of his wife, Mrs. Loraine E. Edwards, and their children. Said past-due indebtedness had been contracted for loans for the same purposes. Each of these notes was on the regular printed form, commonly used then and since then by said bank, being collateral notes having a blank space in the face of same in which collateral security pledged with such notes was described. At the time the loan was made and said notes were executed, it was agreed and understood by and between the bank and said C. W. Edwards that he would deposit and place with said bank, notes of other persons, firms, and corporations which he then had, and others, expected to be received by him in said business, and also the aforesaid life insurance policies, to be held by the said bank as collateral security to secure the payment of said indebtedness, and any other indebtedness which the said C. W. Edwards might thereafter OAve to said bank.

On June 17, 1916, C. W. Edwards, signing his name as William C. EdAvards (conformable to the name used in the policies), and his wife, Mrs. Loraine E'. Edwards, executed in Avriting an assignment and written transfer of said insurance policies to the complainant bank, for the purpose and consideration of the grant of credit to the said C. W.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
111 S.W.2d 873, 21 Tenn. App. 418, 1937 Tenn. App. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/central-state-bank-v-edwards-tennctapp-1937.