In Re Marriage of Spengler

In this postjudgment marital dissolution proceeding, petitioner below, Barbara Ann Spengler (wife), filed a complaint in joinder against claimant Rose G. Spengler (beneficiary) in which wife claimed a community property interest in proceeds received by beneficiary from a term life insurance policy upon the death of wife’s former husband, Daniel F. Spengler, Sr. (husband). The trial court found the policy was an omitted community asset (Civ. Code, § 4353 ) and entered judgment awarding half the proceeds to wife, The issue on appeal is whether an employment-related group term life insurance policy is community property subject to division in a marital dissolution. The narrower question is whether such policy’s provision of a right to renewed coverage without proof of current insurability is a valuable community asset subject to division in a marital dissolution where the insured spouse becomes uninsurable during the marriage, such that the existing policy provides future coverage the insured spouse could not otherwise obtain. We will conclude the employment-related group term life insurance policy is not a community property asset beyond expiration of the term acquired with…