Simonds v. Simonds
New York Court of Appeals
45 N.Y.2d 233, 380 N.E.2d 189 (1978)
- Written by Josh Lee, JD
Facts
Mary Simonds (plaintiff) separated from her husband, Frederick Simonds. Pursuant to their separation agreement, Frederick was to maintain life insurance policies with Mary as the beneficiary. Frederick allowed the policies to lapse and instead bought other policies with his second wife and daughter (defendants) as the beneficiaries. Upon Frederick’s death, his estate was insolvent, and there were no policies with Mary as a beneficiary. Mary brought an action against Frederick’s second wife and daughter, seeking to impose a constructive trust on their insurance proceeds to the extent of $7,000. The trial court granted partial summary judgment to Mary and imposed a constructive trust on $7,000 paid to the second wife. The appellate division affirmed. The defendants appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Breitel, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 810,000 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.
