Lambert v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance

24 So. 16, 50 La. Ann. 1027, 1898 La. LEXIS 333
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 2, 1898
DocketNo. 12,575
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 24 So. 16 (Lambert v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lambert v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance, 24 So. 16, 50 La. Ann. 1027, 1898 La. LEXIS 333 (La. 1898).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Blanchard, J.

In January, 1891, the insurance company, defend[1028]*1028ant herein, issued a policy of insurance upon the life of Louis H. Lambert for the sum of ten. thousand dollars.

By its terms this amount was made payable to said Lambert, his executors, administrators, or assigns, on the twentieth of January, 1911. But should he die before that time, then the amount was made payable to his wife, plaintiff herein, at his death.

In other words, it was a twenty-year endowment policy, of which his wife was the beneficiary in the event of his death before the lapse of the twenty years, and of which he himself was to be the beneficiary should he be alive at the maturity of the endowment.

Something over three years after the issuance of the policy an assignment thereof was made as follows: “ For value received we hereby sell, assign, transfer and set over all our right, title and interest whatsoever, of, in and to twenty-payment life policy No. 69,732 on the life of Louis EL Lambert in the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia unto Louis H. Lambert.”

This was signed first by the husband and then by the wife, in the presence of witnesses. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Lambert received nó consideration from her husband on account of this assignment.

Three days later the husband, in similar terms, transferred all his right, title and interest in the policy to L’Hote & Co. in trust, first, to pay thcmsels’ss any indebtedness he might be due them when the policy became a claim, and, second, to pay the remainder, if any, to him (the husband) or his executors, administrators, or assigns.

These assignments were, respectively, notified to the insurance company.

The policy passed into the possession of L’Hote & Co., who advanced Lambert, on the day of the assignment, six hundred dollars. Besides this he owed them a large amount.

In June, 1896, Lambert, the assured, died.

From the time they became pledgees of the p'olicy to the death of Lambert, L’Hote & Co. paid one thousand and fifteen dollars and seventy-eight cents as premiums thereon. Including this amount, Lambert was, at his death, indebted to them in the sum of twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty-four dollars and seventeen cents.

L’Hote & Co. furnished proofs of death to the company and demanded payment of the policy. But immediately following the death of the assured, the attorneys of Mrs. Lambert had served [1029]*1029written notice on the company that she claimed to be legal owner of the policy and demanded payment of its proceeds to her.

Under the circumstances the company declined payment to either, though admitting its liability on the policy.

Whereupon Mrs. Lambert instituted suit against the company and L’Hote & Go. She recites she was induced by her husband to assign her interest in the policy to him in order that he might transfer the same to L’Hote & Co. to secure an indebtedness he owed them; that this assignment by her was without consideration, prohibited by law, null and void; that her husband’s transfer of the policy to L’Hote & Co. could and did convey no interest which she possessed in it; and that L’Hote & Co. were without legal right to claim the policy or collect its proceeds. She prayed judgment accordingly and for the amount of the policy against the company.

This was followed later by an action by L’Hote & Co. against the company. They recited the fact of the transfer of the policy to them by the assured and their possession of it, the prior renunciation or assignment of her interest in it by Mrs. Lambert to her husband, the indebtedness of the husband to them at his death, and the assurance given them, both by Lambert and the agent of the company, that the policy was the absolute property of the husband. They prayed judgment against the company for the amount of the policy.

The two suits, pending at the same time, were, by order of court, consolidated.

L’Hote & Co., for answer to the suit of Mrs. Lambert, pleaded the same state of facts set up in their own action on the policy against the company.

The latter, answering both suits, avers that it had nothing to do with the assignments which had been made of the policy beyond receiving notices thereof; that none of its agents had any authority to give the assurance, claimed by L’Hote & Co.; that the policy was the absolute property of the assured; that said assurance, if given, was without the company’s knowledge or consent, and is not binding upon it, referring to a clause in the policy stipulating that: “ In no case does the company guarantee the validity of an assignment.”

It then, in effect, states its position to be that of stakeholder merely; admits that it owes the amount due under the policy; is ready, willing and anxious to pay the same to the party legally [1030]*1030entitled thereto; and that it has not been able safely to discharge the obligation because of the rival claims of contending parties.

It then, as plaintiff in reconvention by way of interpleader, recites it has been compelled to employ counsel to defend two suits in order to be protected from double liability in a matter in which it is without interest, tenders and deposits in court nine thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine dollars and eighty-six cents, the exact amount due under the policy, prays that both claimants be ordered to accept the tender, and to be discharged from the suits, leaving the matter to be settled between them, the amount thereof, deposited, to be awarded as the court may determine after due and proper hearing.

The judgment below rejected the demand of Mrs. Lambert and decreed L’Hote & Co. entitled to recover from the insurance company nine thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine dollars and eighty-six cents, with legal interest from judicial demand, and that the costs of suit be paid jointly by the company and Mrs. Lambert.

The company appeals, suggesting error to its prejudice in so far as it is condemned to pay interest and costs.

Mrs. Lambert appeals and asks reversal of the judgment rejecting her demand to be decreed entitled to the amount due on the policy.

The policy, which is the basis of both suits (consolidated), was a contract between the insurance company and the assured, out of which grew two distinct and independent obligations and two distinct and independent rights. Thus, the husband (the assured), if he lived until the year 1911, was to have the benefit of the contract;.if he died before 1911, the wife was to have it. Hence, during the first twenty years of the life of the policy, the obligation of the company was to the wife and to her alone, and upon the happening of the •event, which matured the policy, within that period, she being alive, no one was to be considered, or dealt with, in connection With its settlement except herself.

After the lapse of the twenty years, the husband being still alive, the wife, if living, or, if dead, her heir, ceased instantly to be the obligee and the husband became such alone and the settlement of the policy was to be made solely with him. While, therefore; both •the spouses were, in a sense, during the first twenty years of the life of the contract of insurance, its beneficiaries, the degree in which they respectively held this status

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Bluebook (online)
24 So. 16, 50 La. Ann. 1027, 1898 La. LEXIS 333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lambert-v-penn-mutual-life-insurance-la-1898.