Court Opinion

ID: 9445123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:20:08.762978+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:07.850932
License: Public Domain

MAGRUDER, Chief Judge
(concurring).
At common law the insurance policy is merely a private contract between .the insured and the insurer. If a judgment creditor of the insured finds that he can “reach and apply” an asset of the insured under the policy, that is merely the creditor’s good luck. But the stream cannot rise higher than its source, and so the creditor cannot claim from the insurance company the proceeds of the policy if the insurance company has a good defense against the insured on the policy—say a defense of fraud or breach of condition.
Of course the legislature may, if it chooses, create a direct right in the judgment creditor against the insurer, which may not be defeated by defenses which would be good against the insured. As Judge Woodbury’s opinion points out, the legislature of Maine did just that in its 1941 amendment to the Financial Responsibility Law, which is not applicable in the case at bar. But to achieve this result, the legislature must speak with a clearer voice than it did in §§ 261 and 262 of Chapter 56 of the Revised Statutes of Maine, 1944.