12 F. 807 | U.S. Cir. Ct. | 1882
This suit is brought to enforce a contract for the delivery of a life insurance policy for the sum of $15,000, and for a decree that the defendant pay the same to the plaintiff.
The bill alleges that the defendant, on June 11, 1878, and since, was and has been a corporation organized under the laws of New York, and doing a life insurance business in Oregon; that on said day Oliver Hebert, of Marion county, Oregon, the husband of the plaintiff, applied to the agents of the defendant in said county for insurance upon his life of $20,000, payable to the plaintiff, and paid them the first quarter’s premium thereon, to-wit, $105.60, which sum was by them forwarded to the defendant upon the condition “that if the
The defendant demurs to the bill because (1) the plaintiff, upon the case stated, is not entitled to the relief prayed for; (2) the policy is not sufficiently described; and (3) the plaintiff has an adequate remedy at law.
The jurisdiction of a court of equity to compel the specific performance of a contract for insurance is well established. The policy cannot be obtained by an action at law, although one might be maintained upon it for the insurance after it is issued. But a court of equity having taken jurisdiction for the purpose of compelling the delivery of the policy, will retain it where there has been a loss or death, for the purpose of decreeing payment of the policy, both to avoid expense and because the latter relief is a mere incident of the former. Ang. F. & L. Ins. § 34; Perkins v. Washington Ins. Co. 4 Cow. 645; Carpenter v. M. S. Ins. Co. 4 Sandf. Ch. 408; Brugger v. S. I. Ins. Co. 5 Sawy. 304. Nor does there appear to be any uncertainty as to the nature of the contract, or the form or effect of the policy, as stated in the bill. The agreement was for “a plain life insurance policy” upon the life of the deceased for $15,000, payable
If there is any reason not appearing on the face of the bill why the defendant should not be compelled to perform its contract, as that it was procured by fraud or falsehood, the defendant can set it up as a defence.
The demurrer is overruled.-