Crotty v. Union Mutual Life Insurance

Citations

• 144 U.S. 621
• 12 S. Ct. 749
• 36 L. Ed. 566
• 1892 U.S. LEXIS 2109

Syllabus

<p>A promise by the insurer in a policy of life insurance to pay the amount of the policy on the death of the assured to “M. C., his creditor, if living; ” if notthen to the executors; etc. of the assured, is a promise to pay to that creditor, .if he continues to be a creditor, and if not, then to the executors, etc.; and in an action on the policy by the creditor, if sufficient time elapsed between the making of the policy and the death of the assured to warrant an assumption that the debt may have been paid, it is incumbent on the plaintiff to prove the continuance of the relation and the amount of the debt.</p> <p>The fact that an insurance company does not object to answers made to • questions on a blank sent out by it for securing proof of the death of the assured, does not prevent it from challenging the truth of any statement in such answers.</p> <p>Life Insurance Company v. Francisco, 17 Wall. 672, distinguished from this case.</p>