168 A. 569 | N.H. | 1933
No question of the insurer's liability arises. The validity of the policies is admitted. The only issue relates to the parties entitled to the insurance money.
The insurer has declined to act in pursuance of the authority given by the policies to pay the insurance money to anyone appearing equitably entitled to it. The case therefore turns on the validity of the insured's request that payment be made to Corriveau if he survived the insured. The request amounted to an assignment of the insurance in naming Corriveau as the beneficiary of the policies, subject to the insurer's exercise of its authority to pay to others.
Corriveau had no insurable interest in the insured's life, being a stranger to him with no reasonable expectation of advantage or benefit from the continuance of his life. Mechanicks Nat'l Bank v. Comins,
No claim being made of any wagering element when the policies were issued, it follows that the insured was free to dispose of them as he saw fit. He might give them away as well as sell them. McGlynn v. Curry,
The chance Corriveau took in paying the premiums was a speculation, but it was not a wagering transaction to accept the gift. "Most contracts have an element of gambling in them" (Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Allen,
The suggestion that the policies should be exceptionally treated and their assignment barred, either in all cases or under the conditions here appearing, because of their character as industrial policies, does not invite adoption. By the "facility of payment" clause the insurer may disregard the assignment, and the special purposes of the policies to meet the insured's burial and other expenses are not interfered with or disturbed by the assignment. In Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Nelson,
Exception overruled.
All concurred. *329