CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-VALIDITY OF STATUTE EXEMPTING INSURANCE BENEFITS FROM PROCESS FOR DEBTS

Authors

Abstract

C, a judgment creditor of W, instituted garnishment proceedings to recover the amount of the judgment out of moneys owed by the X insurance company to W as beneficiary of H's life insurance. Subsequently the Arkansas legislature passed a statute exempting all moneys paid or payable to any resident of the State as the insured or beneficiary designated under any life, sickness, or accident insurance policy, from liability or seizure under judicial process, and provided that such benefits should not be subjected to the payment of any debt. Held, by a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court, that the exemption of insurance money from claims of existing creditors with no limitation as to time, amount, circumstances, or need, constitutes an unwarrantable interference with the obligation of contracts and has no reasonable relation to any legitimate end to which the State is entitled to direct its legislation. W. B. Worthen Co. v. Thomas, (U.S.

Recommended Citation

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-VALIDITY OF STATUTE EXEMPTING INSURANCE BENEFITS FROM PROCESS FOR DEBTS, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 1138 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss8/7