James Clark McReynolds

“ Undoubtedly, the general rule is that the United States are neither bound nor estopped by the acts of their officers and agents in entering into an agreement or arrangement to do or cause to be done what the law does not sanction or permit. Also, those dealing with an agent of the United States must be held to have had notice of the limitation of his authority. ”

“ It said:
'If the defendant was a private insurance company, I would have no hesitancy in declaring it estopped from claiming the policy had lapsed for non-payment of premium. * * * The same principle should be applied against the defendant in this case. 'When the United States went into the insurance business, issued policies in familiar form, and provided that, in the case of disagreement, it might be sued, it must be assumed to have accepted the ordinary incidents of suits in such business. ”

“ The statutes and regulations which govern the War Risk Insurance Bureau we must assume are known by those who deal with it. When issuing a policy, the Bureau, so far as shown, did not ordinarily notify the assured of the allocation of the cash payment; there was no custom to give notice of defaults. Here the insured had no right to expect such notices. His policy finally lapsed October 2d. After that, no officer of the Bureau had authority to reinstate it without proof of insurability. The policy so declared. ”