Insurance office

“ 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. ”

“ VI. To prevent frauds, persons insured by this office shall receive no benefit from their policies, if the same houses or goods are insured in any other office, unless such insurance be first specify’d and allow’d by an indorsement on the back of the [88] policy, in which case this office will pay their ratable proportion on any loss or damage ”

“ But the expense of small insurance business must necessarily be above the average, and it is fairer to compare the Post Office rates with those of the office which stands pre-eminent in the insurance of the working classes. Such a comparison shows that up to the age of 40 a life insurance can be effected with the Post Office at a cheaper rate than with the Prudential Insurance Company ”

“ In these circumstances you will no doubt be persuaded of the desirability of sending me the premium forthwith, in order to effect an insurance which has your Lessors' approval. It possible that the office you name would give you credit for so much of is the premium as is proportionate to the risk unexpired. ”

“ Div. 363, on which the insurers relied at the argument, did not arise on a question including several interrogatories as to whether another application had been made, and with what result, and the amount of existing insurance, and in what company. But the application or proposal contained two separate questions,-the first whether a proposal had been made at any other office, and, if so, where; the second whether it was accepted at the ordinary premium, or at an increased premium, or declined ”

“ It is probable that time will develop the necessity of greater uniformity of insurance laws and more definite requirements in the way of published reports and expert inspection. At present, insurance commissioners often have the confidence of neither companies nor people, and no expert knowledge is demanded in the candidate for that office.
The desirability of insurance by government direct is questioned so long as governments themselves are unstable and popular will favors laxity in the business machinery. ”

“ If insurance be made in this manner, for which a slightly higher rate of pre- mium is paid, it will be found that, however long a person might live, more would accrue at death by insurance than by saving.
There are in active existence so many insur- ance companies of good repute and undoubted stability that no difficulty need be experienced in making a judicious selection. Of course, the intelligent insurer would prefer an office whose system would best suit his own requirements. ”

“ In 1906 a committee was appointed to go into the question as to Whether the post office should provide facilities for the insurance of employers in respect of liabilities under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, but no scheme was recommended involving post office action either as principal or agent. Post offices, however, exhibit notices drawing attention to the liabilities imposed by the act of 1906, and sub-postmasters are encouraged to accept agencies in their private capacity for insurance companies undertaking this class of insurance. ”

“ Among the various improvements of these improving times, for we are still improving, notwithstanding complaint, a learned little Devil, inflated with gas, has suggested a plan for the establishment of a Medical Assurance-office, where person and property might be insured at so much per annum, and the advantages to be derived from such an Institution would be, that instead of the insurance increasing with years, it would grow less and less. ”

“ There shall be an office of consumer affairs within the department of insurance to investigate in conjunction with other personnel of the department all allegations of unfair or unlawful acts by any person or entity whose activities are regulated by the department of insurance. ”

“ The party insured must have a property at the time of the loss, or he can sustain no loss, and consequently, can be entitled to no satisfaction.' 'These policies are not in their nature assignable, nor is the interest in them ever intended to be transferrible from one to another, without the express consent of the office.' Now, this case is the stronger, because it was a case where not only the policy but the premises had been assigned to the very parties who sought the benefit of the insurance. ”

“ Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co., supra, and Provident Savings Society v. Kentucky, supra, that an insurance corporation is not doing business within a state merely because it insures lives of persons living therein, mails notices addressed to beneficiaries at their homes and pays losses by checks from its home office. See, also, Pembleton v. Illinois Commercial Men's Association, 289 Ill. ”

“ In many English companies a formal acceptance of the pro posal for insurance is issued. In some companies this acceptance is unconditional, so that the premium be paid within the month, the letter of acceptance running to the effect that the proposal has been accepted, and that a receipt is ready at the office for the premium, upon the payment of which the assurance will commence; but that, if the same be not paid within thirty days, a reappearance and fresh certificate will be required. ”

“ The plaintiff is a New York corporation, with its home office in New York city, and has transacted and does transact the business of life insurance on a large scale in all of the states of the United States, and with persons residing in every country of the civilized world. It commenced to transact its business with residents of Montana in 1869, and its business has progressively increased until its total insurance in force in that state amounts to $10,023,445, calling for premiums amounting to $343,664.93. ”

“ It appears to me also to be bad policy to insure to a great amount, because by a strange arrangement in all insurance offices, the sum paid for damage is not estimated, as it ought to be, by considering what proportion the damage bears to the whole value of the building, and paying the sufferer the same fraction of the insurance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the sum insured is large, a higher premium per cent. is demanded; and money, papers, pictures, gunpowder, and jewels, are excluded.—If an article be falsely described, in order that it may be insured at a lower premium, the policy is justly void. An insurance made on the same subject at different offices, must be specified by indorsement on the policy; and, in case of loss, the offices pay a sum in proportion ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He shall furnish the insured a statement showing the financial condition of the insurer and such other information as the insured may require. He shall report to the insurance commissioner in detail the amount of insurance placed and the premiums paid therefor, and shall pay to the insurance commissioner the additional license fee herein provided. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The statute did not purport to make the States supreme in regulating all the activities of insurance companies; its language refers not to the persons or companies who are subject to state regulation, but to laws 'regulating the business of insurance.' Insurance companies may do many things which are subject to paramount federal regulation; only when they are engaged in the 'business of insurance' does the statute apply. ”

“ 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 insured are required by the terms of the policy to notify the company of all sales of the property insured, and the assent of the insurance company is necessary in order to cover the property for the new owner. ”

“ On the twenty-seventh of December, the complainants tendered their note for the agreed premium, and demanded the policy of reinsurance. The defendants declined to make the policy. Several grounds have been insisted on in support of this refusal:
The first is, that by force of a statute of the State of Massachusetts, (Rev. Stats., ch. 37, secs. 12, 13,) insurance corporations can make valid policies of insurance only by having them signed by the president and countersigned by the secretary. ”

“ 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 ”

“ There is nothing in the record which shows that the agent was invested with authority to make an insurance for the company. In representing himself as an agent, he only solicited an application by the assured to the company for a policy. ”

“ Large establishments also will study out the problem of carrying their own insurance. It is also probable that a few employers may venture to experiment with state insurance. But the fact is, as the writer of this article knows, that no well informed and substantial employer will have anything to do with state insurance except as a last resource, or unless he is compelled.
Finally it is stated that no spokesman for the casualty insurance companies appears upon the field in New York. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The receipt by an agent for the first premium, or of a note therefor, subject to the approval of the application by the company, does not effect a contract between insurer and insured.
Some states have enacted statutes prescribing requirements for life insurance policies, or standard forms. Delivery to a third person for the insured may be sufficient. The contract becomes complete when the policy is put in the mail, postage prepaid, for delivery in due course to the insured. ”

“ An insurer may, of course, assume the risk of such changes in the insured's health as may occur between the date of application and the date of the issuance of a policy. Where the parties contract exclusively on the basis of conditions as they existed at the date of the application, the failure of the insured to divulge any later known changes in health may well not affect the policy. Mutual Ben. Life Insurance Co. ”