Montana labor news., 1932-06-02
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IS REAL ISSUE
WHAT PRICE INSURANCE?
By A. G. SHONE.

The Montana Standard, May 7, 1882, displayed on its front page, in the
usual large type, a recital of why auto insurance rates IRE so high in
Butte. The only conclusion it could come to, as reiterated by some eminent
insurance agents, who make their living selling to the public policies that
insure everything you want on the front page and take it away from
you on the last page, is that jures in this county have a tendency to
SOAK" insurance companies. The juies in this county are rs fair, if not
farer, than any in the land. They could not be otherwise An insurance
company, in this class of cases, never defends in its " name; there is
party under or Montana statute; therefore, the injured party cannot d-
redly sue the insurance company in its own name, and this gives to the
company the right to defend the action and hide behind the poverty of the
insured defendant. The insurance company that must pay the Judgment
and court costs in the event of IN adverse decision is never known to the
jury, and if it becomes known, by evidence in the case, that IN insurance
company has insured the liability of the known defendant. it usually
amounts to a new trial granted. No comparison is made between verdcts
in this and other states, nor rightly could there be, without exposing the
enency of Butte juries toward excessive verdcts. The article originated
from insurance companies and their agents for the sole purpose of intimi-
dating the integrity and honesty of our jurors at the present session of
the District Court; thereby it casts a cloud of suspicious upon the honesty
in deliberations of these men in arriving at true and just verdnts The
repercussion of such accusations of dishonesty among or good citizens
will and should have a telling effect upon those who accuse without fact
or proof.
Let Vi compare the rates under plan No. 2 and plan No. 8 of GU Work
mems Compensation Act and see if these sefstyled Jury abused" COM
panies, who own every @skysraper' in the country arr getting a fair deal
in Montana. Plan No. 2 Of our Act provides that the employer of workmen
may insure his liability to pay compensation in any insurance company
authorized to transact business in this state. Plan No. 3 of our Act pro-
vdes that the employer pay into the State Treasury, according to schedule,
a sum equal to the percentage of his total annual payroll.
Benefits Less-Rates Higher Under Insurance Plan.
For the years. July !, 1915, to June 80, 1880, there were 1895 worknen
under plan No. {, the insurance plan, and 1892 workmen under plan Nc. 8,
the state plan, 10 that the annual variation in workmen between these
two plans is very slight, rs the above figures taken over a period of Is
years, demonstrates. During this same period Of time the state, under
plan No. 3, paid to injured workmen, $272959677, while all insurance
companies under plan No. 2 paid during the same time, S1,364598O9, less
than one-half the u paid under the state plan, and yet the insurance
companies charge the employers, who insure their liability under insurance
plan {, a much higher rate than is being charged like employers by the
state under plan No. 8 As an Illustration