Brown v. Brown

In Barner v. Barner, 241 Ark. 370, 407 S.W. 2d 747 (1966), we held that a fire insurance policy taken out by a life tenant did not inure to the benefit of the remainderman, in the absence of a fiduciary relation between the two. The reason is that an insurance policy is a personal contract for the benefit of the person with whom it was made and by whom the premiums were paid.

Thus the controlling distinction is whether or not a fiduciary relationship exists. Here the parties were divorced. Thereafter there was not even a confidential relationship between them, much less a fiduciary one, merely…