Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1912-01-08
LIFE INSURANCE DECISION.

A much vexed question in the law
of life insurance has just been set
tied by the Supreme Court of the
United States. The general rule that
one may insure that in which he has
an interest and which the law does
not forbid to be insured has always
been held to imply that in order to
obtain valid and effective policy of
life insurance the party seeking il
must have some interest in the life
upon which insurance is sought, says
the New York Sun.
This is known as an insurable in
terest To have such an interest in
the life of another one must be 80
related by ties of blood or marriage
as to have reasonable anticipation
of advantage from his life; or If not
thus related he must stand in the POI
sition of q creditor or surety of the
insured person. In the early days of
life insurance the courts were in
Clined toward restrictive view as to
the classes Of persons who possessed
an insurabe interest in the lives of
others; and Lord Kenyon is reported
to have held that father could not
insure the life of his son because he
had no peCuniary interest in 1t. TheI
tendency of the later decisions in this
country has been the other way; and
the simple relationship of parent and
child has been held in many of the
States to give the parent an insurable
interest in the life of the child, ire
spective of any pecuniary relation or
obligation between them. That wife
has an insurable interest in the life
of her husband is everywhere conced-
ed: and as Il general rule "A husband
of his wife, though this has been occa
sionally denied in cases where the
wife could be deemed only a burden
by reason of hopeless invalidism, lun-
acy or the like. The right of cred
itor to insure the life of his debtor
and thus secure the eventual payment
of his debt has been recognized from
the first.
The reason why the law has always
thus insisted upon the existence of
an insurable interest in the party who
seeks insurance upon the life of an
other is plain. As Mr.. Justice Holmes
says in the case to which we refer:
"a contract of insurance upon a
life in which the insured has no in
terest Is pure wager that gives the
insured sinister counter interest In
having the life come to an end The
very meaning Of an insurable inter-
est is an interest in having the life
continue and so one that is opposed
to crime. And what is perhaps more
important, the existence of such an
interest makes a roughly selected
class of persons who by their general
relations with the person whose life
Ia insured are less likely than Grim
mails at large to attempt to compass
his death"
The suit which has just been decid-
ed by the Supreme Court related to
the proceeds of policy of insurance
upon the life of one John c. Burch-
ard, now deceased. The insurance
company admitted its liability but
could not determine whether the
money belonged to the administrator
of Mr.. Burchard or to a surgeon
named Grigsby, both of whom claimed
it. 1t seems that Mr., Burchard, after
paying two premiums and when a.
third premium was overdue, fell i'll
and needed money for n surgical oper-
alton. He thereupon sold and as
signed the policy to Grigsby in con-
slderation of the payment of 500 and