21 Ind. App. 525 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1899
The complaint by the appellee, Minnie Hunn, against the appellant, contained two paragraphs, both based upon a certain policy of life insurance. A demurrer to each paragraph for want of sufficient facts was overruled. The verdict for the appellee was expressly based upon the second paragraph, by which it was alleged, in substance, that the appellant, in consideration of the quarter-annual payment of $4.88, to be paid to it on or before the 27th day of February, May, August and November in every year, executed to the appellee a policy of insurance on the life of Thomas S. Hunn for $1,000, on the 27th day of May, 1895, a copy of which policy was made an exhibit. It was further alleged that said .Thomas S. Hunn died on the 30th day of August, 1896, in the city of Evansville, Vanderburgh county, in. this State; that the appellee was his mother, and that the policy was made payable to her as such; that proofs were furnished the appellant of the death of said Thomas S. Hunn on the 26th day of September, 1896; that the appellee performed all requirements of said policy on her part to be performed, and all quarter-annual premiums were paid to the appellant, and receipted for by it; that by consent and agreement of the appellant the time for the payment of the quarter-annual premium or payment which fell due on the 27th day of August, 1896, was extended by it to the 31st day of August, 1896, at which time it was fully paid to it; that the payment of said sum of $1,000 had been demanded of the appellant, and payment had been refused, although the same was due; wherefore, etc. In the policy filed as
The complaint does not show in either paragraph that the appellee had any insurable interest in the life of Thomas S. Hunn, unless the averment that he was her son be a sufficient showing in that regard. Where the insurance company contracts with the person whose life is insured to pay the sum insured to another person, it is not necessary for such other person, in an action brought by him upon the policy, to show that he had an insurable interest in the life insured. A person has an insurable interest in his own life, and he may effect such insurance, and appoint any one to receive the money in case of his death during the existence of the policy. Provident, etc., Ins. Co. v. Baum, 29 Ind. 236; Franklin Ins. Co. v. Sefton, 53 Ind. 380; Continental Ins. Co. v. Volger, 89 Ind. 572; Ekhart, etc., Assn. v. Houghton, 103 Ind. 286; Amick v. Butler, 111 Ind. 578; Burton v. Continental, etc., Ins. Co., 119 Ind. 207. A policy issued to one upon the life of another, the former having no insurable interest in the life of the latter, is void; it being
In the complaint before us the appellee is represented as a contracting party, and the argument on behalf of the appellee proceeds in part upon the same theory. It is also claimed in argument that the policy shows that the person whose life was insured contracted with the appellant. A policy of life insurance is property. It is a chose in action. The question as to who is the owner thereof, with right to sue thereon, when there has been no assignment of the contract, depends upon the question with whom was the contract made, to whom was the policy issued, by the insurance company. In Continental Ins. Co. v. Volger, supra, it was said: “It was alleged in each paragraph of the complaint that the appellee insured the life of his mother; that the policy was payable to the appellee, and that she paid seven annual premiums thereon. Though the policy was payable to the appellee, it may be, if it had been taken out and the premiums paid by her mother, that the latter, as claimed in the first cause of demurrer, would be the real party in interest, and that in such case the action should have been brought by her. * * * But as the appellee took out the policy and paid the premiums, we think she should be regarded
The policy set forth as an exhibit in the case before us might have been executed to the appellee, as alleged in the complaint. There is nothing in the policy which is necessarily inconsistent with this averment in the complaint. It is a well settled and necessary rule that a complaint must proceed upon some definite theory. The appellee cannot be permitted to- claim that the
The judgment is reversed.