The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1876-06-02
An Insurance Case.

An evil which lies at the root of life
insurance, and which already has done
much 10 salj its prosperity. was indi-
Gated II our columns yesterday in the
Y decision OF the Court OF Appeals in the
case Of Bergmann vs.. the 81. Louis Life
I Insurance Company, in which the YER
/ diet Of the lower Court was set aside
and judgment rendered in favor of the
Life Insurance Company The facts in
! the case are that the husband of the
I plaintiff had made six annual payments
out ~ ten that required TO be made to
secure paid-up policy of 81 900 on his
life, paying in all some S6i4. 40 as cash
and SO interest in advance on notes
given. In 1873 he ceased pay and
died an the same year; his widow, who
sues. does not get the amount Of the
I policy, does not get the pro rata to
which his payments. should have emit
tied him, does not get back the bard
earned money he had paid-does not
get back any thing.
We do not quarrel with the law i'm the
case, which is that if man makes a
contract by which he agrees to forfeit a
thousand dollars already paid, if, under
any circumstances, he fails to pay a
hundred dollars, he must abide by the
contract; bnt we are certainly aston
ished that life Insurance Companies
think ii To their interest to frame such
contracts and To spend one-fourth of
their receipts ia inducing unsuspecting
people to sign them. We do not need
% indicate what is the condition of Life
Insurance in this country to-day; we
need 20 no further than this city to
point to the records Of ten years in W hich
the half dozen companies that started
out with such fiouish have disappear
ed, leaving behind them the memory Of
disappointed hopes. Of lying promises,
If lawsuits, vexatiOn, failure. and i'll
will. The story j. told in the two items
OF the State Insurance Report, which
give us the cost Of carrying on the bust
ness and the amount Of lapsed and can
celcd policies
There j. notus;ness under the~sun
which is attempted t. ne carried OH un-
der system IT forieiiures so unjust
and 20 ona-siied. Il j. a system under
which the insurer takes all the risk and
the Company takes all the certainty, in
which the insurer furnishes all the
money and the Company hxes'All the
Terms and keeps All the profiss Such
system may be profitable for while,
but in the end il can not fail 10 deter
people from insuring. TO prejudice the
public mind against Insurance.. ami to
put m obstacle in the way Of insurance
prosperity which can nos be overcome
by AL the best efforts OF the most hon
est. conscientious. and economical com
panies in the country. One such case
a that OF Bergman outweighs the
pleadingS Of a thousand agents. it sets
in motion the antagonisms of old enc
mics, awakens the Old disappointments
and grudgcs, and costs more than it
saves TO any company. Believing as
we DO in the value Of life insurance.
and the benefits il distributes when
rightly administered, we regret to no..
tice 4 feature which j. rs injurious to
the companies as it Is unjust TO the is-
surers, AMI shall hope soon tosee n
situation Of affairs in which no one who
has paid money for insurance shall be
subjected to the experience of the plain
tiff in the Bergman case Sc. LoinS
Gio5c-Democra.