MacDonald v. Conservative Life Ins.

The problem we have to determine is whether one who has received a valuable consideration under a contract with a person whom he agreed to make beneficiary of a life insurance trust may withdraw the policies from the trust and by exercise of the power to change the beneficiary substitute another party who is a mere donee.

Plaintiff, Mrs. Ethel Agnes DeVine MacDonald, instituted this suit for specific performance of a contract to make her beneficiary of a life insurance trust and to obtain the proceeds of the policies, which have been deposited in court. She claims that in 1930 she agreed to…