In re Le Bourgeois
In re Le Bourgeois
Opinion of the Court
Before his marriage, Mr. Octave Le Bourgeois took out a policy of insurance on his life payable to himself, his 'executors, administrators, or assigns. After his marriage, he caused this policy to be made payable to his wife with no reserve to himself of right to make any change; and he took out two other policies payable to her, with no reserve of right on his part to change the beneficiary. All this he did purely as gratuities to his wife. She thereafter became insane, and has been so for 15 years, and is now an inmate of the state insane asylum at Jackson, supposedly incurable. Recently, desiring to have the five children of the marriage'substituted for his wife as beneficiaries, he caused her to be interdicted, and himself to be appointed her curator, and provoked thé holding of a family meeting for advising whether this change should be made. The family meeting so recommended and the present proceeding is a rule taken by him on the undercurator and'the insurance compa
It is also suggested that the transfer of the first policy to the wife is null because it was a gratuitous donation, and was not made in the form prescribed by law for donations. Succession of Miller v. Manhattan Ins. Co., 110 La. 652, 34 South. 723. But the present proceeding is not aimed at having the said nullity declared. There is no prayer to that effect. On the contrary, the policy is treated as belonging to the wife, and having to be transferred from her to the children.
The judgment appealed from is annulled, and the rule is dismissed; the plaintiff in rule to pay all costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In re LE BOURGEOIS
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) 1. Insane Persons An interdicted insane wife’s husband as her curator could not make for her, pursuant to the recommendation of a family meeting, a donation to his children by substituting them as beneficiaries under life insurance policies on his life of which the insane wife was beneficiary; she being herself incapable to make a donation under Oiv. Code, art. 1475, while under articl? 415 it could not be made for her. 2. Appeal and Error 150(1) — Appeal-able Interest — Insurance Companies— Change of Beneficiaries. Insurance companies which had issued poli> cies on husband’s life had interest to appeal from judgment ordering substitution of his five children as beneficiaries under life policies of which his insane wife was beneficiary. 3. Insurance 585(3) — Transfer of Beneficial Interest in Life Policy — Right of Curator Husband. A husband, curator of his insane wife, seeking substitution of children in her place as beneficiaries under a policy on his life, impliedly affirms the wife’s ownership of the beneficial interest, and cannot rely to secure the substitution on the claim that the original transfer of the beneficial interest from his estate to the wife .on their marriage was a revocable donation. 4. Insurance 586 — Irrevocable Donations to Wife — Life Policies. Life policies taken out by a. husband in favor of his wife after their marriage were not revocable donations. 5. Insane Persons The discharge of a natural obligation, as the obligation of children to furnish to their insane mother things and attentions which no officer or servant at a public asylum would render her, cannot serve as a consideration for a transfer ’ by her to them.