New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodworth
New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodworth | |
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Argued March 18, 1884 Decided March 31, 1884 | |
Full case name | New England Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Woodworth, Adm'r etc. |
Citations | 111 U.S. 138 (more) 4 S. Ct. 364; 28 L. Ed. 379 |
Holding | |
Reaffirmed the general rule that simple contract debts, such as a policy of insurance not under seal, are, for the purpose of founding administration, assets where the debtor resides, without regard to the place where the policy is found. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinion | |
Majority | Blatchford, joined by unanimous |
New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodworth, 111 U.S. 138 (1884), was a U.S. Supreme Court case.
The case[]
On September 21, 1869, Ann E. Woodworth took out a life insurance policy on herself with the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company in Michigan. Her husband Stephen E. Woodworth was the beneficiary. She then died in New York, and her husband moved to Illinois. The company did not pay the policy, and he sued in Illinois. The Illinois court passed judgment against the insurance company. The insurance company appealed saying that the suit should not have been filed in Illinois.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed the general rule that simple contract debts, such as a policy of insurance not under seal, are, for the purpose of founding administration, assets where the debtor resides, without regard to the place where the policy is found.
Side effect of the case[]
The plaintiff, Stephen E. Woodworth, was both the Step-Father and Uncle of noted entomologist Charles W. Woodworth. C.W. Woodworth's mother became a widow and married her late husband's brother who was a widower. The judgment arrived when C.W. Woodworth was 19 and likely helped pay for his education at the University of Illinois.
See also[]
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company – acquired New England Mutual in 1996
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 111
External links[]
Works related to New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodworth at Wikisource
- Text of New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Woodworth, 111 U.S. 138 (1884) is available from: Justia Library of Congress OpenJurist
- Used as precedent in CONNECTICUT MUT. LIFE INS. CO. V. MOORE, 333 U.S. 541 (1948)
- 1884 in United States case law
- United States Supreme Court cases
- MetLife
- United States Supreme Court cases of the Waite Court
- United States federal jurisdiction case law