Honorable0. P. Lockhart,Chairman OpinionNo. O-4521 Board of InsuranceCommissioners Re: Whetherthe combinedpolicy Austin,Texas of The AmericanHospitaland Life InsuranceCompanyprovidesfor pay- ment of any life insurancebenefits, Dear Sir: and can be classeda8 life insurance?
Your letter of March 31, 1942, requestingthe opinionof this department,reads as follows:
"EuclosedIs specimen,combinationpolicy of the Ameri- csn Hospitaland Life InsuranceCompanyof San Antonio,Texas.
"We inviteyour attentionespeciallyto the first three paragraphsin bold face type on the front page, and Part III 'AllPremiumsReturnedIn Event of Death' on page three there- of.
"This'Departmenthas heretoforeruled consistentlythat policiesof this nature.constitute life insuranceinsofaras they providefor payment'ofany benefitscontingentupon the cessationof human life under Article4716. Because soms questionhas been raisedas to the correctnessof our ruling as appliedto this particularpolicy we ask you to advise us whetheror not it does providefor paymentof any life insur- ante benefitsand whether it can thereforebe classedas life Insurance. "
The statutesof Texas do not definethe tern)"life insurance" but merely defineswhat shall be deemeda life, accidentor health in-. 5urancecompany. For the purpose of supervisionby the InsuranceDepart- meat, all of such companies,descrlbedare placed under the supervision of the Life InsuranceCommissioner, thus dividingthe duties as distln- gulshedfrom fire and casualtyinsurancebusinesssupervisedby the Fire and CasualtyInsuranceConunissioners.
We quote from Cooley'sBriefs on Insurance,Vol. 1, Second Edition,page 27:
"A contractof insuranceis an agreementby which one party for a consideratioq, which is usuallypaid in money, either in one sum or at differenttimes duringthe continu- awe of the risk, promisesto make a certainpaymentof Honorable0. P. Lochhart,page 2 (O-4521)
money, on the destructionor injuryof somethingin which the other party has an interest. In fire and marine in- surance,the thing insuredis property;in life or acci- dent lneurance,it la the life or the health of a person. All that is requisiteto constitutesuch a contractla the paymentof the consideration by the one and the prom- ise of the other to pay the amountof the insuranceupon the happeningof injuryto the subjectby the contingency contemplatedin the contract,"
In the Cyclopediaof InsuranceLax by~couch,Vol. 1, par. 34, we find life insurancedefinedin the abeenceof a statuteas a contract "dependentupon human life, wherebyone for a stipulatedconslderationj customarilycalleda'premium,agreesto pay anothera certainsum of money upon the happeningof a given contingency, usually death, or upon the terminationof a specifiedperiod."
As early as 1691, the SupremeCourt of this'state,in an adopted opinion,found in SupremeCouncilof AmericanLegion of Honor v. Larmour, 16 S.W. 633, recognizeda life insurancecontractin substantially the same languageas quotedfrom the foregoingauthorities,and we quote from the opinion: ". . . an agreement,in consideration of a specified sum in the aggregate,or at statedinterval6of time dur- ing the contract,to make a paymentin money upon the de- structionor Injury of somethingin which the insuredhas an interest. Propertyis the subjectof fire and marine insurance. Life, healthand soundnessof the person con- stitutes,usually,the subject-matter of life and acci- dent insursnce. This questio+e fully consideredand decidedin Commonwealthvi Weatherbee,105 Mass. 160~ State v. Association,~lSNeb. 291, 25 N. W. Rep.<,;@;,+d _ Farmerv. State, 6$1Tex. 276,7 S. W. Rep. 220. . . ."' ;.
In defininga "life insurancecompany",Arti& 47i6,Revised Civil Statutes, providesthat such a companyshallbe deemed a corpora- tion doing businessunder any charterinvolvingthe paymentof money or