Insurance company

“ The insurance phase of this company is set apart from the fraternal phase after election to membership, even though payment of assessments levied for insurance purposes is made compulsory. The provisions of its constitution show that insurance terms and conditions are precisely like those of non-fraternal companies. Insurance funds are administered on a business basis, and they cannot be used for fraternal purposes. In short, the insurance program and activities reveal that this is an insurance company, run like other insurance companies. ”

“ To indulge in outdoor life, the townships of Darlington and East and West Whitby were traversed by me as sub-agent for a farmers’ insurance company. There was not much difficulty in securing renewals of policies, but it was uphill work to get new business. The general excuse for refusal to insure was that Mr. Farmer had been insured before and had never made anything out of it. My throat used to get dry as a tin horn in trying to explain that the company couldn’t exactly guarantee a “blaze”, but the insurance policy was to protect the insure in case of fire. ”

“ The decision proceeds upon the ground that the insurance business is to be distinguished from ordinary private business; that an insurance company, in effect, is an instrumentality which gathers funds upon the basis of equality of risk from a great number of persons-sufficiently large in number to cause the element of chance to step out and the law of averages to step in as the controlling factor-and holds the numerous amounts so collected as a general fund to be paid out to those who shall suffer losses. Insurance companies do not sell commodities ”

“ In determining the liabilities upon its contracts of insurance of any insurance company other than life insurance, and the amount such company should hold as a reserve for reinsurance, he shall, for casualty insurance companies, charge one half of the premium on all annual policies written within one year, and on policies written for more than one year he shall charge one half of the current year's premiums, plus the whole of the premiums for subsequent years. ”

“ It may and shall be lawful for any person or persons applying for insurance in the Mutual Insurance Company of the city and county of Albany, at his, her, or their election, to pay to said company a certain definite sum of money in full for such insurance, which said sum shall be in lieu and place of a premium note; and such person or persons shall not be liable to said company, during the continuance of his, her, or their policy, for any sum beyond the amount thus originally paid. ”

“ My uncle Ed, he got caught in a threshing machine, paid his premiums every week for forty years, what did he get? Nothing. Insurance companies. They're the great satan. No one likes an insurance company. ”

“ Throughout the policy, wherever the subject intended to be insured is spoken of, it is described, not as a partial interest, not as a mere lien for advances and charges upon the goods held in storage, but as the property itself, whatever might be the existing rights to it. Thus the insurance company covenanted to make good to the assured all such loss or damage, not exceeding the sum insured, as should happen by fire 'to the property as above specified.' What that specification was, we have seen. ”

“ Now, let us suppose that he applies to and is insured in a stock company; he gets his policy for $1,000, and pays for it one per cent., $10. He is entitled to the same indemnity in case of a loss as he was in the mutual company; but when he pays his premium, he ceases to have any further interest in the successful operation of the company; he is the insured, but not the insurer; and whether the company make gains of suffer losses, matters not to him, provided the company continues solvent. ”

“ No. 10,364, a clause in the reinsurance policy stated that 'loss, if any, payable at the same time and pro rata with the insured;' and it was held that such language simply gives to the company the benefit of any defense, deduction, or equity which the first insurer may have, making the liability of the reinsurer the same as the original insurer. It does not limit such liability to what the original insurer may have paid or be able to pay. ”

“ Its outstanding policies were not affected thereby, and it continued to collect the premiums upon them and to pay the losses arising thereunder, and it was doing so at the time of the service of process upon its agent.'
'It cannot be said with truth, as we think, that an insurance company does no business within a state unless it have agents therein who are continuously seeking new risks, and it is continuing to issue new policies upon such risks. ”

“ We omit the reasoning by which that is demonstrated, and will only repeat: 'The business of insurance is not commerce. The contract of insurance is not an instrumentality of commerce. The making of such a contract is a mere incident of commercial intercourse, and in this respect there is no difference whatever between insurance against fire and insurance against 'the perils of the sea. ”

“ If the assured, by his voluntary act, increases the risk, and the fact is not known, the result is that he gets an insurance for which he has not paid.' And again: 'An increase of risk which is substantial, and which is continued for a considerable period of time, changes the basis upon which the contract of insurance rests ”

“ In view of the statute, and of that understanding, upon the faith of which the assured made his application, paid the first premium, and accepted the policy, the company is estopped, by every principle of justice, from saying that its question embraced insurance in cooperative associations. The answer of 'No other,' having been written by its own agent, invested with authority to solicit and procure applications, to deliver policies, and, under certain limitations, to receive premiums, should be held as properly interpreting both the question and the answer as to other insurance. ”

“ Such is the form of the contract, and such is its character. It has been contended that the payment of each premium is the consideration for insurance during the next following year,-as in fire policies. But the position is untenable. It often happens that the assured pays the entire premium in advance, or in five, ten, or twenty annual instalments. ”

“ When procuring the policy, obtaining applications of employees, taking pay roll deduction orders, reporting changes in the insured group, paying premiums, and, generally, in doing whatever may serve to obtain and keep the insurance in force, employers act not as agents of the insurer, but for their employees or for themselves. ”

“ The next item on the bill of fare is to boom the company's business. Now it appears that the main business of an insurance company is to insure people; the healthy sort who keep on digging up. We got to write insurance like the devil." He thought for a moment. "Say, Marshall, who's the livest wire agent the Western Crown's got?"
"There's that fellow who wrote the hundred thousand dollars insurance for Mac, dad. Fellow called Hayes, I believe." ”

“ Washington Insurance Co., 4 Cow. (N. Y.) 645, the rule was applied in a case where the agent was authorized to make insurances, 'provided the office shall recognize the rate of premium, and be otherwise satisfied with the risk.' It was held that the company was bound to issue a policy where the insurance was a proper one and the premium was paid or tendered, although before the premium was received at the home office the property was consumed by fire. ”

“ They also try to prevent the lapsing of policies and sell new insurance when time allows. The company compensates the agents as agreed to in the 'Agent's Commission Plan' under which the agent retains 20% of his weekly premium collections on industrial insurance and 10% from holders of ordinary life, and 50% of the first year's premiums on new ordinary life insurance sold by him. The company plan also provides for bonuses and other fringe benefits for the debit agents, including a vacation-with-pay plan and participation in a group insurance and profit-sharing plan. ”

“ These experts can provide a museum of safety devices all of which are tested and require the employer to use such devices. Think too, of the saving in insurance. The reduction of the cost of the maimed, killed and wounded in any mutual insurance company will show whether the system is to be a success or failure. The actuarial, technical experience gained in this way will be of great use in cheapening the actual insurance in the workmen's compensation act besides providing for the prevention of accidents and more humane and better conditions. ”

“ If the insured dies before premium payments cease, under the terms of the policy, the beneficiary receives the full amount of the policy. If the insured lives beyond the stated period, he is entitled to receive the amount written on the face of the policy or he may be allowed to receive a paid-up policy for some specified sum. A policy of reinsurance is simply a contract made by one insurance company with another, whereby the first reinsures with the second some individual risk which it has itself accepted and insured. ”

“ The agent of the company at Baltimore, who negotiated this insurance, the defendants being a New York company, states that when applications are made to enter risks on running policies, they are endorsed at once by him, and the report of such endorsement transmitted to the company in New York, which names the premium, and this is communicated to the assured; that the premiums specified in the body of the policies are nominal, and the true premiums to be charged are fixed by increasing or reducing the nominal premiums when the risks are reported ”

“ An employee may elect insurance under the policy by completing any form of pay roll deduction order approved by the employer. Each employee electing the insurance before becoming eligible will be insured automatically on the day he becomes eligible. On the effective date of the policy and on each annual renewal date an average annual premium rate will be established. The employer shall give the insurer notice of terminations of insurance and additions of employees becoming eligible. ”

“ The assured assumes the risk of paying premiums during the life on which the insurance is taken, even though their aggregate amount should exceed the insurance money. He also takes the risk of the forfeiture of his policy if the premiums are not paid on the day they fall due. ”

“ The insurable value of the various properties of the company must amount to six or eight million dollars. The average rate on those properties would probably be about seventy-five cents per hundred dollars a year for insurance. That would make a premium of say fifty thousand dollars per annum. The commission to the insurance broker who handled that line—who could secure it and control it—would be ten per cent of fifty thousand, or five thousand dollars. ”

“ These circumstances gave the nephew such an interest in the life of the insured as to prevent the policy from being a wager one. The insurance effected was from the 9th of March, 1867, and the policy recited the payment of the first annual premium on that day, and stipulated for the payment of the subsequent premiums on the same day of that month each year. The payment of the insurance money, after notice and proof of the death of the insured, was made dependent upon the punctual payment, each year, of the premium. ”

“ The only question before the court is as to the construction of the language of the reinsurance compact. The term 'reinsurance' has a well-known meaning. That kind of a contract has been in force in the commercial world for a long number of years, and it is entirely different from what is termed 'double insurance,' i. e., an insurance of the same interest. The contract is one of indemnity to the person or corporation reinsured, and it binds the reinsurer to pay to the reinsured the whole loss sustained in respect to the subject of the insurance to the extent to which he is reinsured. ”

“ The preliminary arrangements for the amount and conditions of insurance are in a great majority of instances made by agents. It is always so where the insurance is effected out of the State where the company is incorporated and has its principal place of business. ”

“ For all that appears the insured may have been advised and may have assumed that the coverage clause of the policy gave protection in such a case as is here involved and may not have desired to continue to pay the additional premium for the other losses described. We are not called upon to speculate as to the state of mind of the insured's officers and one asserted ambiguity is not to be cured by another. If the general coverage clause permits recovery, we see nothing to defeat it in what was done in connection with the rider. ”

“ Everyone recognizes the desirability of having such risks as those of fire, shipwreck, lightning, death, etc., assumed by certain individuals or companies who make a business of such risk-taking. A small premium is paid by the individual for protection, and he is freed from anxiety from mischance and is able to devote his whole energies and capital to his business; the insurance company has specialized in this one department and by equalizing the chances over a wide field has practically eliminated them. ”

“ But fair dealing requires that he should state every thing which might influence, and probably would influence the mind of the underwriter in forming or declining the contract, &c. Generally speaking, insurances against fire are made in the confidence that the assured will use all the precautions to avoid the calamity insured against, which would be suggested by his interest. The extent of this interest must always influence the underwriter in taking or rejecting the risk, or in estimating the premium. ”