applied to the means of getting rid of such engagements afforded by certain Acts of parliament passed for the relief of insolvent debtors (t). These Acts enabled persons imprisoned for debt, upon surrendering all their property for the benefit of their creditors, to obtain. their discharge from custody and protection from future process against their persons or property. And under certain other Acts (u), persons not in trade, who had become indebted without any fraud, or gross or culpable negligence, might obtain as complete a discharge from their debts as if they had become bankrupt. But the Bankruptcy Act, 1861 (x), repealed all The Bankthe Acts for the relief of insolvent debtors, and abolished ruptcy Act, the Court for their relief (y), and rendered all persons, whether traders or not, subject to the bankrupt law (z). It is, however, provided that no person, not being a trader within the meaning of the Bankruptcy Act, 1861, shall be adjudged bankrupt in respect of a debt contracted before the passing of that Act (a). (t) Stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110, replacing stat. 7 Geo. IV. c. 57, continued and amended by stat. 11 Geo. IV. & 1 Will. IV. c. 38. (u) Stats. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 116; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96; 10 & 11 Vict. e. 102. (x) Stat. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 134. (a) Stat. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 52 1861. Policy of insurance. Life insurance. CHAPTER V. OF INSURANCE. HAVING now considered, though very briefly, the subject of debts generally, there remain certain debts, payable on contingencies, which deserve a separate notice, namely, debts arising under contracts to insure effected by policies of insurance. A policy of insurance, or assurance, is the name given to an instrument by which a contract to insure is entered into; and a contract to insure is a contract either to indemnify against a loss which may arise on the happening of some event, or to pay, on the happening of some event, a sum of money to the person insured. The most usual kinds of insurance are insurance of lives, insurance against loss by fire, and insurance of ships and their cargoes against the perils of the seas. And, first, as to life insurance. The advantages of life insurance are now so well known, that there is no occasion to dilate upon them. By payment of a small annual premium during the life of the person insured, a sum of money may be secured at his decease, applicable to the payment of his debts, for a provision for his family, or any other purposes. But as the insurance of lives and other events, in which the person insured has no interest, is often nothing more than a mischievous kind of gaming, it is enacted, by an Act of the 14th of George III., that no insurance lives in which shall be made on the life of any person, or on any has no interest other event whatsoever, wherein the person for whose use and benefit, or on whose account, such policy shall be made, shall have no interest, or by way of Insurances on the insured void. gaming or wagering; and that every such assurance shall be null and void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever (a); and that it shall not be lawful to make any policy on the life of any person, or other event, without inserting in the policy the person's name interested therein, or for whose use or benefit, or on whose account, such policy is made (b): and that in all cases where the insured hath an interest in such life or event, no greater sum shall be recovered or received from the insurer than the amount or value of the interest of the insured in such life or other event (c). But this Act does not extend to insurances bond fide made on ships, goods or merchandises (d), with respect to which provisions have been made by another Act of Parliament (e). Every person is considered to have a A person may sufficient interest in the duration of his own life to sustain his own insurance of it; but if he should afterwards put an end to his life, or die by the sentence of the law, the insurance will be void in the hands of his executors; and no provision to the contrary contained in the policy of insurance will be of any avail (f). The assignee of a person who has insured his own life is not required by the above-mentioned statute to have any interest in the life of such person, for the statute makes no mention of the assignment of policies (g). A creditor has an in- A creditor surable interest in the life of his debtor to the extent of has an insurhis debt; but if the debt should be discharged from any in the life of other source, it was formerly held that the policy would thenceforth be void for want of interest (h). This strict (a) Stat. 14 Geo. III. c. 48, B. 1; Shilling v. Accidental Death Insurance Company, 2 H. & N. 42; Hebdon v. West, 3 B. & S. 579. See unte, p. 166. (b) Sect. 2; Hodson v. Observer Life Assurance Society, 8 E. & B. 40. (c) Sect. 3. (d) Sect. 4. (e) Stat. 19 Geo. II. c. 37, amended by stat. 27 & 28 Vict. c. 56, s. 1. (f) Amicable Insurance Society v. Bolland, 4 Bligh, N. S. 194, reversing Bolland v. Disney, 3 Russ. 351; see Clift v. Schwabe, 3 C. B. 437. And see Bunyon on Life Insurance, 94-104, 3rd ed. (g) Ashley v. Ashley, 3 Sim. 149. (h) Godsall v. Boldero, 9 East, 72; S. C. 2 Smith L. C. insure his own life. able interest his debtor. Trustee. Father and son. Assignees of life policies may sue in their own names. law was not, however, usually taken advantage of by the assurance offices, who generally paid the sums insured without any inquiry as to the extent of the interest of the party insured in the life on which the insurance had been effected (i). And by subsequent decisions (k), the doctrine that a contract for life assurance is a contract for indemnity only was overruled; so that if the person insuring has an insurable interest at the time of effecting the policy, the subsequent loss of such interest will not render the policy void. An interest as trustee is sufficient to support a life insurance (1). But a father has not such an interest in the life of his son as to warrant an insurance of it for his own benefit (m). By the Stamp Act, 1891 (n), policies of life insurance are required to be duly stamped according to the table in the note (o). An Act of the year 1867 (p) enabled any person entitled, by assignment or other derivative title, to a policy of life assurance, and possessing at the time For every full sum of £50, and also for any fractional ... ... 0 6 Exceeds £500, but does not exceed £1,000 For every full sum of £100, and also for any fractional ... 1 0 Exceeds £1,000 For every full sum of £1,000, and also for any fractional 10 0 For any payment agreed to be made upon the death of ... 0 1 (p) Stat. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 144; see ante, p. 37 and n. (x). of action brought the right in equity to receive and the right to give an effectual discharge for the moneys thereby assured, to sue at law in his own name to recover such moneys (q). But no assignment made Notice of as after the passing of the Act of a policy of life assurance be given. signment to should confer on the assignee therein named, his executors, administrators or assigns, any right to sue for the amount of such policy, or the moneys assured thereby, until a written notice of the date and purport of such assignment should have been given to the assurance company liable under such policy at their principal place of business for the time being; and the date on which such notice should be received should regulate the priority of all claims under any assignment (r). As we have seen (s), since 1875 all legal choses in action have been directly assignable, so that the assignees may sue therefor in their own names at law. Assignments of policies of life insurance must be duly stamped, or the assignee will have no right to sue or give a valid discharge for the moneys assured (t). husband or By the Married Women's Property Act, 1882 (u), Life insura married woman may by virtue of the power of making ried woman, ance by marcontracts therein contained effect a policy upon her and for wife, own life, or the life of her husband for her separate children. use; and a policy of assurance effected by any man on his own life, and expressed to be for the benefit of his wife, or of his children, or of his wife and children, or any of them, or by any woman on her (u) Stat. 45 & 46 Vict. c. 75, s. 11, replacing like provisions of the Married Women's Property Act, 1870, stat. 33 & 34 Vict. c. 93, s. 10, as to the effect of which see Holt v. Everall, 2 Ch. D. 266; Re Mellor's Policy Trusts, 7 Ch. D. 200; Re Adams' Policy Trusts, 23 Ch. D. 525; Re Soutar's Policy Trusts, 26 Ch. D. 236; Re Seyton, 34 Ch. D. 511; Re Davies' Policy Trusts, 1892, 1 Ch. 90. |