Esswein

The sum of $10,000, one-half of that paid to the defendant under an insurance policy on the life of his one-time partner, is the main stake in this action. For several years preceding his death, Frank L. Esswein and the defendant were partners operating under the name of E & R Machine and Mfg. Co. The plaintiff, the widow and executrix of the will of Frank L. Esswein, claiming that the $20,000 received by the defendant was a part of the assets of the partnership, sought an accounting. The defendant filed a cross-complaint, asking for a declaratory judgment decreeing that he held the entire proceeds from the insurance policy as his own, and not as a partnership asset. The trial court entered a judgment for the cross-complainant and we are affirming it.

As we read appellant’s earnest argument on this appeal, we discover three main premises: (1) under an insurance policy, in which the owner retains the right to change the named beneficiary, the beneficiary named has not a vested but only a contingent interest; (2) an assignment of the policy gives the assignee the right, superior to that of the beneficiary, to the proceeds of the policy; and (3) the assignment extinguishes the right…