Warthan v. Haynes

This case concerns the disposition of the proceeds of life insurance policies and the related question of the application of our community property laws.

Henry Petterson and wife, Rosa Dill, were accidentally killed as the result of an automobile collision, though Patterson survived his wife by a period of some fifteen or thirty minutes. No children were born to this marriage, but each left surviving children by former marriages. Three policies of insurance on the life of the husband were in force at the time of his death. One is a group accident policy taken out during the last marriage, all…