Pritchard v. Snow

530 S.W.2d 889, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3215
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 13, 1975
DocketNo. 16546
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 530 S.W.2d 889 (Pritchard v. Snow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pritchard v. Snow, 530 S.W.2d 889, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3215 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

EVANS, Justice.

The basic question for determination in this case is whether proceeds from a life insurance policy are community or separate property. This determination requires our construction of the simultaneous death provisions of Section 47, Texas Probate Code, as amended in 1965.

Jack Snow and Willie Alyee Snow, husband and wife, died as the result of an automobile accident on September 2, 1973, and there is no direct evidence that they died other than simultaneously. This suit was brought by the administratrix of the wife’s estate against the administrator of the husband’s estate to recover one-half of the net proceeds of a life insurance policy on the life of the husband, which policy the husband had acquired prior to marriage. The case was tried to the court without a jury upon stipulation of facts and the trial court rendered take-nothing judgment in favor of the husband’s estate. We affirm.

During their marriage, and at the time of their death, the Snows were residents of Texas. No children were born of their marriage and both died intestate.

In 1958, during a prior marriage to Thelma Leota Snow, Jack Snow had acquired an ordinary life insurance policy on his life from Southwestern Life Insurance Company in the amount of $10,000.00 with double indemnity payment provisions in the event of his accidental death. At the time this policy was acquired, Thelma Leota Snow was designated primary beneficiary and Jack Snow’s daughter was designated secondary beneficiary. Jack and Thelma Snow were divorced in 1961 and the following year Jack Snow changed the beneficiary designation under the policy to his brother, Billy Earl Snow and his sister-in-law, Laura N. Snow, respectively, as primary and secondary beneficiaries.

On December 29, 1965, Jack and Willie Alyce Snow were married and on July 22, 1970, by endorsement, the beneficiary designation was changed to Willie Alyce Snow with no contingent or secondary beneficiary being designated. Under the printed provisions of the policy the proceeds were payable to the insured’s estate in the event he was not survived by his wife, Willie Alyce Snow. No change was thereafter made in the beneficiary designation and Willie Alyce Snow was the designated beneficiary of the policy at the time of the parties’ death.

Fixed premiums on the policy were paid monthly by Jack Snow in the amount of $24.04 each, and there is no evidence that Jack Snow had any source of income from his separate estate after his marriage to Willie Alyce Snow. He did earn wages from regular employment during their marriage. On August 27,1973, six days prior to the death of the parties, a loan in the amount of $2,831.12 was made against the policy and the proceeds were deposited in a joint bank account of the parties.

The evidence established that two other life insurance policies had been issued on the life of Jack Snow. In one he named his wife, Willie Alyce, as primary beneficiary and his brother as secondary beneficiary; in the other he named his wife, Willie Alyce, as sole beneficiary. One policy on the life of Willie Alyce Snow designated her husband, Jack Snow, as primary beneficiary and her brother-in-law, Billy E. Snow, as secondary beneficiary. The proceeds of those policies are not in dispute.

The trial court concluded that since the Southwestern Life Insurance policy had been acquired by Jack Snow prior to his marriage to Willie Alyce Snow, it belonged to his separate estate at the time of his death and in consequence his estate was the legal owner of the policy and entitled to the proceeds thereof.

In her first two points of error appellant asserts the trial court erred in this conclusion and in construing Subsection 47(b) of the Texas Probate Code as being applicable to life insurance proceeds only if it can be proved that the policy was owned by the community estate.

[891]*891Appellant relies principally upon Sherman v. Roe, 153 Tex. 1, 262 S.W.2d 393 (1953). In that case, which was decided prior to the adoption of the Texas Simultaneous Death Act, there existed no presumption of survivorship even though there was no evidence that the parties died other than simultaneously. A certificate of insurance under a group life insurance policy on the life of the husband had been issued during the existence of his prior marriage and his wife of that earlier marriage had been designated as beneficiary. After his second marriage the group policy certificate was increased from $2,000.00 to $9,000.00 and all of the premiums were paid after that marriage out of community funds. The second wife was designated as the beneficiary of the policy, to whom the benefits were payable “if surviving the Employee, and otherwise to the estate of the Employee.” The Texas Supreme Court concluded that since the facts of survivorship could not be proved, proceeds of the insurance policy should be deemed community effects under the statutory presumption that “all the effects which the husband and wife possess at the time the marriage may be dissolved shall be regarded as community effects or gains, unless the contrary be satisfactorily proved.” The court reasoned:

“In our opinion it should be presumed that the payment of premiums by James Roe after his marriage to Edna I. Roe were made from community funds. State v. Jones, Tex.Civ.App., 290 S.W. 244, 250, reversed on other grounds, Tex.Com.App., 5 S.W.2d 973; Martin v. Moran, 11 Tex.Civ.App. 509, 32 S.W. 904, 906. Furthermore, the insurance was maintained by these payments and by his continuing to work as employee of the company insured by the group policy. The greater part of the insurance was procured after James Roe and Edna I. Roe were married. Whatever rights to the proceeds of the insurance might accrue to him as his separate property on account of his having procured the insurance for $2,000 before his marriage to Edna I. Roe or by his payments of premiums before his marriage to her in our opinion passed to the community when, after his marriage to Edna I. Roe, he paid the premiums out of community funds, made her the beneficiary, and increased the amount of the insurance to $9,000. Under this state of facts the ownership of the proceeds of the certificate is to be determined in the same way as if the certificate had been issued after James Roe and Edna I. Roe were married and all premiums paid out of community funds.” (262 S.W.2d 397)

Appellee contends that the case is controlled by the reasoning of McCurdy v. McCurdy, 372 S.W.2d 381 (Tex.Civ.App.—Waco, 1963, writ ref.). In that case, which was decided after the enactment of the Simultaneous Death provisions in the Texas Probate Code, but prior to the 1965 amendments, the husband had acquired two life insurance policies prior to his marriage which named his estate as beneficiary. Total premiums on the two policies in the amount of $10,094.66 were paid prior to marriage and $657.60 paid during coverture from community funds. Upon the husband’s death his widow sought action against his executor to determine the status of the insurance proceeds. The court held that the proceeds of the policies constituted the separate estate of the deceased insured but that the community was entitled to reimbursement on the basis of the premiums paid with community funds. Through Justice Wilson the court stated at page 382:

“In Brown v. Lee,

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530 S.W.2d 889, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pritchard-v-snow-texapp-1975.