Earle v. New York Life Insurance

Citations

• 7 Daly 303

Syllabus

<p>Whenever the purpose of a transaction by way of pledge or mortgage is satisfied, the right of the pledgor to the surplus becomes absolute.</p> <p>An insurance company having, after the death of a person insured, settled with the pledgees of the policy by paying them the amount for which the policy had been deposited with them by the insured as security, and having, as part of the settlement, agreed to pay the surplus due on the policy to those lawfully entitled to it:—Held, that the assignee of the executor of the insured could recover in an action on the policy the amount of the surplus.</p> <p>Such claim of the assignee,—held to be a purely legal claim for money due upon contract, which the insurance company was liable to pay in full to the assignee, without deduction for expense incurred by the company in resisting the unfounded claims of other persons to the money due.</p>