The San Francisco call., 1906-06-01
COMPANIES
|. DEAL WITH
HIGH HAND
.Reprehensible actics Of
Some Insurance
Concerns.
Commissioner Wolf Will
keep a Close Watch
on Them.
romises to Publish a
Blacklist Of the
Unfair.

- Is
Unfair.
i The dealings of some of the insur-
ance companies with claimants for fire
losses are highly reprehensibfe. Tech
nicalities are being pressed to the limit
in taking advantage of policy-holders,
and high-handed tactics are being re-
sorted to. -
Insurance Commissioner Wolf says
there will be a day of reckoning. He
is strong in his denunciattOn of some of
the concerns and promises to prepare
lists of companies showing which acted
fairly and which unfairly for broadcast
circulation. -: .s....s.s S..ss4
H. The actions of the companies will be
| closely watched, says the Commission
er, and credit Will be given those that
stand mp sauarely and rebuke admin
fstered to those that try to crawl from
under their obligations.
The attitude of the insurance compa-
tnies is varied Some are doing little.
in the way Of settlement and are re-
ported to be waiting to get authoriza-
tion from home offices. together with
Instructions concerning the course. to
ported to be refusing to accept proofs
of loss when they are offered under the
terms of the policies
One business man resorted to the eX-
pedient of sending his proof of loss by
registered letter. that he might get the
signature of the representative or the:
company that had insured him show
ing the receipt of the loss proof blank.
In another instance where a blank
containing proof of loss was pushed
aside by a clerk, as reported, an attor-
who in the at the time
OF the happening offered to be u wit
mess to the fact of the offer of proof
Notwithstanding that clerk in the
office protested against his putting
in."
ACTING INDEPENDENTLY.
The most intense interest is mani
tested in all parts of the city concern
ing the course of the insurance compa-
nies. Each company is pursuing its
own course Independently of all others
so it is reported and each is making
its settlements in its own way In this
way each company is making its own
history, good or bad.
Insurance Commissioners Wolf has not
begun to prepare his list of good and
elapse before the situation can be fully
cleared up 4 full understanding is
necessary before list can be made ac
curately.
Insurance Commissioner Wolf ex
planned yesterday. the method he will
pursue in making up his lists of good"
insurance companies ana DdQ con-
Germs for general distribution among
the insurance commissioners of the
United States and the newspapers.
Il consider a company good that lives
UP. to its moral obligations and a bad
one company that fails to do that,
he said.
Insurance policies are continually
modified continued the Commissioner.
Ito meet court decisions, and they are
made to embrace a great number of
conditions that the men who pay pre-
rz7s u
derstand the full drift of If they read
them all. The companies claim that
they are, compelled to include the pro-
visions in their policies to guard them
selves against imposition. But the ull-
derstanding is that when man pays
his money for policy, when he insures
his property, he will. get fair treatment
if he is burned out. If he does not get
it, there is something wrong.
BROWBEAT POOR PEOPLE.
Il do not consider an insurance COM
pany good that deliberately resorts to
browbeating poor men and women who
local Offices to see when they can get
their money to rebuild their homes.
think that company that resorts to
technicality to avoid paying its legiti
mate losses under the plea that it is
compelled to he close AS possible to
protect its policyholders in other parts
OF the word comes under the head OF
bad company.
las I said before there is mora
obligation upon the companies as well
as legal obligation. Agents claim
sions in policies is only for protection
and that they ordinarily deal much
more literally with people than they
are compelled to under the written
terms that the policy-holders accept.
The insurance men say that IL is
good business to deal literally. If it
ever was good policy it is excellent
policy now, for the eyes of the world
are centered on San Francisco and
what is done here by the underwriters
send out a list of good companies and
a black list when all the facts are
learned
Every Insurance Commissioner in
the United States will have copies
Every newspaper will have a chance to
Its readers.
SOME COMPANIES WORTHY. Il
Some of the companies, as I learncl
are paying UP and are settling as they /
ought to act, The business of some /
companies is in the hands of men in |
San Francisco who come from the East |
outsiders, who boast that they are cold
who have put aside the local |
of the underwriting /
companies, and who have no interest
in the rebuilding of San Francisco and |
no interest in sight except to get out |
of the settlement of losses with the |
smallest possible expenditure Such |
men are standing entirely on the legal I
ground and ignoring the moral rights |
of the persons with whom they did /
business when insurance policies were I
written.
TT is notorious that nots one person /
IN one thousand ever reads carefully /
everything that is contained in an in
surance policy. OF those who actually I
read not one in one thousand ever fully /
Understands the naftore VI full Tba