Dubois v. Smith

The defendant, Judith (Dubois) Smith, appeals the Superior Court’s (Dickson, J.) decision to award the proceeds of certain life insurance policies, of which she was the named beneficiary, to the plaintiffs, the five sons (the Dubois brothers) of the decedent-insured, based on the language of the decedent’s first divorce decree. The issue presented is whether in this State the rights of a named beneficiary to the proceeds of a life insurance policy may be superseded by the provisions of a divorce decree. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Smith argues that neither of the decedent’s two…