Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Mahoney
California Court of Appeal
161 P.2d 944 (1945)
- Written by Maggy Gregory, JD
Facts
Approximately two months after marrying Patricia Mahoney (defendant), J.B. Mahoney, Sr. purchased an insurance policy from Fidelity & Casualty Co. (plaintiff), which named his son J.B. Mahoney, Jr. (defendant) as the sole beneficiary. Subsequently, the senior Mahoney was killed in an accident. Patricia demanded that the insurance company pay her one-half the proceeds under the theory that the insurance premium was paid during the marriage with community property and that the insurance proceeds were therefore also community property. The insurance company filed an interpleader action, naming both Patricia and J.B., Jr. as defendants, and submitted the insurance proceeds to the court. After a hearing on the merits between Patricia and J.B., Jr., the trial court found that the insurance proceeds were the sole property of J.B., Jr. rather than community property. Patricia appealed from that judgment.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Wood, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 816,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.