4 App. D.C. 516 | D.C. Cir. | 1894
delivered the opinion of the Court:
The sole ground of defense made by the company is based upon the want of “ insurable interest ” in the plaintiff.
This contract has none of the ordinary features of what are called speculative or wager policies. It was not applied for or taken out at the request or instigation of the beneficiary. • She paid no assessment, and was apparently ignorant of the existence of the policy until it matured. It was the insured’s own voluntary act for reasons known only to himself. The beneficiary was not related to him, she was not his betrothed; she was simply that which he called her in making the designation — a friend. In the course of a general discussion of the question of insurable interest in a policy of regular life insurance, Mr. Justice Bradley, speaking for the Supreme Court of the United States, said: “There is no doubt that a man may effect an insurance on his own life for the benefit of a relative or friend; or two or more persons on their joint lives, for the benefit of the survivor or survivors. The old tontines were based substantially on this principle, and their validity has never been called in question. The essential thing is, that the policy shall be obtained in good faith, and not for the purpose of speculating upon the hazard of a life in which the insured has no interest.”
As said by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts: “ It is the interest of the assured in his own life that supports the
It remains now to consider the special defense relied on by the defendant, which is founded on the condition endorsed on the certificate, that, “All claims under this contract shall be subject to proof of insurable interest.” As it is plain that the plaintiff had no “ insurable interest,” as that term is applied in law, in the life of the member, the contention ,is that she is barred by the foregoing condition. It cannot be claimed for this association that it was wholly without power to permit certificates to be issued for the benefit of persons having no insurable interest, as there is no such restriction in the articles of association or the bylaws, or in any law authorizing its organization, as was the case in American Legion of Honor v. Perry, 140 Mass. 580 ; and other cases which might be cited. On the contrary, the general purposes of the association as set forth in Section 3 of Article 1, of the by-laws, quoted above, would plainly warrant the inference that its charity was to be unlimited, save by the act or declaration of the member himself. This inference, too, is strengthened by the language of Section 2, Article 7, which provides that the fund shall be paid “ to the person or persons whose names shall at the time of the death of said member be found recorded as his last designated
But it is claimed, and we think justly, that the board of directors were empowered by the by-laws to change the conditions of insurance from time to time, and insert the new ones in the certificates or policy as issued. In the exercise of this power it does not appear that the directors made or recorded any change in the old by-laws. They simply exercised the power in adding to the certificate in controversy the condition with respect to the proof of insurable interest. Conceding the meaning claimed for this condition, as well as the power to insert it in the policy, it does not follow that the defense thereon founded can be maintained. The circumstances of the transaction estop the association from
To avoid the effect of this situation, the defendant sought to introduce proof that its officers received the impression from the description of the beneficiary, and acted thereon, that she was betrothed to the member, and error has been assigned on the exclusion of this proof. Had the proof been admitted it cannot be seen how the defendant would have been benefited, because it has generally been held that one occupying this relation to the insured has no insurable interest.
But the proof was clearly inadmissible. If the directors were misled by these words they have themselves alone to blame. The word friend, in its real, usual and well understood meaning, is one of the best and noblest in the language, and it is inconceivable that Uber could intend to mislead by its use. If the directors really attached a meaning to the word that is wholly unauthorized, they must suffer the consequences of their inexcusable mistake.
By what has been said with respect to the character of this policy and the right of the beneficiary to recover as against the association, we are not to be understood as undertaking to determine that the benefit of the policy accrues to the plaintiff as against others not before the court, who might assert the invalidity of her title and seek to claim the reversion of the policy. If the defendant had admitted the validity of the policy, but denied plaintiff’s right to the proceeds thereof for want of insurable interest, it could easily have protected itself against expensive and troublesome litigation through a bill of interpleader.
Irrespective, therefore, of the question whether plaintiff is
We find no error in the judgment appealed from, and it is therefore affirmed, with costs to the appellee.