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Muirhead v Muirhead’s Factor, (1867) 6 M 95

Muirhead v Muirhead’s Factor, (1867) 6 M 95


Citation: Muirhead v Muirhead’s Factor, (1867) 6 M 95

Link to case on WorldLII.

Rule of thumb: If a person with a life insurance policy dies, does this go straight to the family members, or does it go into the executry pot so that potential debtors can claim it? It goes into the general pot of the executry and debtors can potentially get their hands on it before the family.

Judgment:

This case affirmed the principle of ‘insurance policy payouts payable to debtors first’ – where someone has died and this has entitled them to insurance policy payouts, this money goes into the general residue of the deceased’s estate rather than being paid out first to family members under ‘legal rights’, ‘it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that the sums in these policies form part of the executry estate... it is not heritable but moveable (moveable that has not been bequeathed to anyone as it did not exist before the deceased passed away) ... it must be included in the free executry estate’, Lord President Inglis at 98

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Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.