Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 1 (of 3)Paris, John Ayrton
Science
Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 1 (of 3)
Paris, John Ayrton
Medical laws and legislation -- Great Britain
The insurance must be made by a party having an interest in the life
insured, for by 14 _Geo._ 3, _c._ 48, _s._ 1, it is enacted, “That no
insurance should be made by any person or persons, bodies politick or
corporate, _on the life or lives_ of any person or persons, or on any
other event or events whatsoever, wherein the person or persons for
whose use, benefit, or on whose account, such policies should be made,
_should have no interest_, or by way of gaming or wagering; and every
insurance made contrary to the true intent and meaning thereof should be
null and void to all intents and purposes.” And also “That it should not
be lawful to make any policy or policies on the live or lives of any
person or persons, or other event or events, without inserting in such
policy or policies the person’s name interested therein, or for whose
use, benefit, or on whose account such policy was to be made or
underwrote. And that in all cases where the insured had had an interest
in such life or lives, event or events, no greater sum should be
recovered, or received from the insurer or insurers, than the amount or
value of the interest insured, in such life or lives, or other event or
events.”
A creditor has an interest in the life of his debtor, _Anderson_ v.
_Edie, K. B. Trin. Term._ 1795, but it must be for a good and legal
consideration, not for gaming, _Dwyer_ v. _Edie, Hill. Term._ 1788. If
the creditor be paid by the executors, though from funds furnished
_aliunde_, (their testator having died insolvent) he cannot recover
against the insurers. _Godall and others_ v. _Boldero and others_, 9
_East_ 72.
Death by suicide, or the hands of justice, is generally excepted in all
policies, and no premium is returned, though such event should happen on
the day of insurance, by _Lord Mansfield_ in _Bermon_ v. _Woodbridge,
Doug._ 789 and in _Tyrie_ v. _Fletcher, Cowp._ 669; and as this is a
matter of contract, it appears to be unimportant whether the party dying
by his own hands be found _felo de se_ or not.
And if there be any fraudulent concealment as to the state of the
party’s health or age[582] the policy is void. But “even where there is
an express warranty that the person is in good health, it is sufficient
that he is in a reasonable good state of health; for it never can mean
that the _cetui que vie_ is perfectly free from the seeds of disorder.
Nay even if the person, whose life was insured, laboured under a
particular infirmity, if it can be proved by medical men, that it did
not at all, in their judgment, contribute to his death, the warranty of
health has been fully complied with, and the insurer is liable. 2 _Park_
on Ins. 649.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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