The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-04-22
THE NEW INSURANCE PROB.
DENIS.

People who give attention to the
neculiarities Of life and accident in
surancc will be interested in tho de-
tails Of the solution OF the problems
IN these two lines concerning the
passengers who went down on the
Inflated Titanic. So far as the In
surance Of the vessel itself is concern
ed. there will be no trouble. Since
straight ship insurance policies nave
superseded bottomry the payment
IN case Of loss is an obligation easily
enforced in any court of admiralty.
1t is the life insurance Of the passe1-
gers that raises the interest.
Definite information as to the life
insurance loss will not be o%btainable
for some time, but it is now estimat-
ed at figures varying from fifty to
one hundred million dollars. Be-
cause Of the nature OF the catas-
trophe double indemnity is payable
on nearly every accident policy of
large amount carried by such men as
John Jacob Aston and Benjamin Gus-
senheim. The life insurance carried
by these men will run into the mill
ions for each. so that all told. the
estimate of Il hundred million will
probably be found nearer the total
than fifty million.
That the insurance companies can
stand this strain without the slight
est embarrassment proves the sound-
ness of their system. The property
loss in the San Francisco fire, the
greatest group insurance loss in his
tory. was nearly ten thousand million
dollars. Besides thai sum the loss
of even a hundred million in h III
tantc wreck diminishes in import
anCe.
The proof of death in the cas- OF
those who persisted will be something
nut of the usual. Ordinarily. this
proof consists of testimony of those
who knew the deceased in life and
Saw him in death-thc undertaken.
physician or minister who We're in
attendance on tho living or who per-
formed the last rites for the dead. No
such evidence can be offered by the
claimants of the insurance of the III
tiuic victims. Identity and certainty
can not be established even Ivy those
who escaped Yet the fact that those
WHO did not escape in Il boats met
Death is a positive truth recognized
l> man but incapable of direct
specific proof.
The companies will probably waive
the formal proof of death and pay
the claims on policies held by all
Victims if they are not among those
who were saved 1t is inconrcivablc
that any n in order TO dofraud =
company out of a policy. would at
tempt To pretend that he Was lost. 1t
would he we'll nigh impossible To do
81 with the checking and rccheckins
of the list of survivors.
However. one question comes tn
tho front in this particular. The
passenger list of the ship went dow
with the ship itself and the positive
proof Of being on board tho vessel,
which is essential to the assumption
nf death in the wreck. may be harder
to establish than it seems at first
blush. OF course where relatives NJ
friends who were saved knew of the
presence on the vessel Of those who
persisted. before the accident, there
need be no trouble. But in the cases
outside this classification there may
I've some developments that will be
interesting.
The members of the crew probably
carried little life Insurance., but as
we understand the English working.
mems law. the company owning tn,
vessel must pay To the dependents oi
each dead eamau indemnities rang.
ine from $500 to s6.125. making
n total in the aggregate of between
two n five million dollars. This
is practically an insurance in which
those responsible must pay.