Commonwealth ex rel. Attorney General v. American Life Ins.

Citations

• 162 Pa. 586
• 29 A. 660
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 1025

Syllabus

<p>Life insurance — Insolvency—Breach of contract — Measure of damages.</p> <p>When a life insurance company has been adjudged insolvent and has been dissolved, it has broken its engagements with its policy holders and becomes liable to them on account of such breach, and the policy holders then have a claim for damages.</p> <p>In such a case the measure of damages is the net value of the policies, without regard to the health of the holder, and calculated as of the date of the dissolution of the corporation, according to the tables of mortality used in the business of life insurance, less the outstanding premium notes, if any.</p> <p>Equitable assignment — Bill of exchange — Appropriation of funds.</p> <p>An ordinary bill of exchange or draft drawn generally and not upon any particular fund, whether accepted or not by the drawee, does not operate as an equitable assignment.</p> <p>A beneficiary in a policy of insurance on the life of her husband, who died prior to the date of a decree of dissolution of the insurance company, made proof of her loss, and a sight draft was drawn to her order on the company by its treasurer. She indorsed the draft and sent it to a bank for collection. The draft was presented for payment, and payment refused, and shortly thereafter the decree of dissolution was entered. Held that there was no equitable assignment of the fund, and that the beneficiary was entitled to no preference over the other creditors.</p> <p>Insolvent insurance company — Policies maturing after dissolution.</p> <p>Where life policies have matured by the death of the assured after the date of the decree of the dissolution of the company, the beneficiaries are not entitled to a dividend on the face value of their policies, but only on the net value calculated as of the date of the dissolution.</p> <p>Mutual insurance — Distribution—Insolvency.</p> <p>Where an insurance company issued both ordinary life policies and mutual policies, but never kept a separate fund for t