The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-15 00:00:00

ACTION ON A POLICY OF ASSURANCE.

The cause of "Ilembridge v. Hoar., P. 0." has been
tried in London, and was an settee ea a poliay of
aseurame, dated the 30th of December, 1870, aad
effected with the Sun Assurance Life Office, on the
life of a Mrs. Formby, widow, now deceased, for
£5,000, and the defendants pleaded—firet, that the
mourance was obtaiusd by misrepresentation of the
state of health of the assured ; and, secondly, as a plea
on equitable grounds, that the policy was made subject
to a comiition that the statements in a certain propmal
in a certain declaration signed by the assured were true,
and that some of the statements were not true. Tliese
pleas being what are termed affirmative pleas, the right
to begin was with the defendant, which gave him the
first and lent words to the jury.
The Sun Life Office, of which the defendant is the
public officer, filed a hill in Chtumery, tieekiug to
have it decreed that the liolicy of assurance was
obtained by Mrs. Formby by concealment and nide
representation, and that the same was void, and
ought to be delivered up to be cancelle 5. The einee
bail written promising to pay the £3,000 within the
time they had agreed by the terms of their jelly
te de so—yiz , three months, and the amount wee
to beet, been received by the plaintiff on the list of
June, but on the 11th they file il their NUM Creamery,
and on the 21st the plaintiff leaned hie writ in the
preeent action. The Vice-Chancellor snit, upon ap-
peal, the Lord Chancellor, dismissed the bill with
costs, on the ground that the queetion
essentially one for a jury to decide, and it hail
better be tried, covsequeotly the plaintiff, who is the
exe cuter of Mn,. Foruaby'e will, entered hie cause for
and it came MI for hearing on Saturday, the let
inst., and occupied the Court nearly seven days. Mrs.
Formby by her will bequeathed the policy to a Dr.
Lyle, and made hien her residuary legatee. Mrs.
Formby, it appeased, was the widow of a Mr. Formby,
who for some time bad been in shattered health, and
died of delirium tremens coupled with lung disease in
January, le7o. In the Alail following his widow was
delivered of a posthumous el slit, and in May she p.c.
eepted an offer of marriage made to her by Dr. Lyle,
who was the medical officer of a lunatic asylum, Pile
ruakitg it a condition that the fact of their engage•
meet ehonld be for some time concealed from her
friends. Knowing that she had only a life interest
in her property (1118,000), and being detsiv ins of
doing minnething for the benefit of her future bun.
basil, she proposed to insure her life, but ler. Lyle sug-
gested that any proposal to that end had better reruain
over till Detember, when her birthday would have
approaehed. On the 6th of December, 1870, Mrs.
Formoy's proposal paper was sent in to the Sun Office,
in which she gave the name of Mr. Kemp as her usual
needical attendant. Mrs. Formby pre rented her-
elf to Dr. Budd, a physician at Exeter, acting
in that city for the Sun Office, for medical
examination, and the result was that the office ac.
cepted her propoisal to Insure upon the ordinary
terms. She died on the let of February, 1872,
about 13 months after effecting the insurance, Dr.
Tyler Smith certifying that her death was caused
by reeve en of the bursting of an abscess outside the
womb into the peritmeum. The refusal on the part of
thy office to pay the insurance was feunded on a belief
that they had been misled es deceived as to the state of
the assureil'ii health at the time her proleioal to insure
was animated to the office. They produced evidence,
both verbal and Written, to show that for some toug
time prior to her death ales was, and continued to be,
in a delicate state of health; that she was constantly