Sykes v. Armstrong

Citations

• 111 Miss. 44
• 71 So. 262

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance. Mutual benefit insurance. Bight of beneficiary. Executors and administrators. Expenses of administration. Interest on insurance policy. Benefits. Provisions of charter and by-laws. Lapse.</p> <p>The beneficiary in a mutual benefit policy has no vested interest in same during the life of the insured his right is inchoate, imperfect and ambulatory, until the death of the insured, and so where the beneficiary dies before the insured, the proceeds of the policy upon the death of the insured goes to his estate and not to the estate of the beneficiary who died first.</p> <p>2. Executors and Administrators. Expenses of administration.</p> <p>In. such case the cost of administering the estate of the beneficiary-are not chargeable upon the proceeds of the policy of insurance.</p> <p>3. Mutual Benefit Insurance. Benefits. Provisions of charter and by-laws.</p> <p>In determining who is entitled to receive the benefits of mutual benefit associations, wherein the money contributed by its members provides the fund from which the benefits are paid, we should give a liberal construction to the by-laws of the association so as to effect the purpose of the parties to the contract.</p> <p>4. Same.</p> <p>The constitution and by-laws of this order simply mean that when the beneficiary named under the policy, is dead or when there is no named beneficiary in the policy, then the proceeds of the same go to the widow, orphans or legal representatives, that the-named beneficiaries take under the policy the amount they would inherit from the decedent in case of his intestacy, as if it was a part of his estate, subject, however, to the cost of the administration of the estate of the insured.</p> <p>5. Insurance. Benefits. Lapse.</p> <p>In no case where there are of the class living who are designated as probable beneficiaries in the policy does the insurance entirely lapse or is it uncollectible.</p>