Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Wilson

Citations

• 110 Va. 571
• 66 S.E. 836
• 1910 Va. LEXIS 96

Syllabus

<p>1. Equity Pleading&emdash;Dismissal of Bill&emdash;Effect on Cross-Bill.&emdash;Dismissal of an original bill does not necessarily carry with it the If the cross-bill is defensive merely, dismissal of the bill dismisses the cross-bill, but where the plaintiff in the cross-bill has equities arising out of the subject matter of the original bill which entitle him to affirmative relief of which he would be deprived by the dismissal of his bill, a court of equity will treat the cross-bill as in the nature of an original bill and retain it, and grant the relief to which the plaintiff may be To do otherwise would manifestly sacrifice substance to form.</p> <p>2. Insubance&emdash;Restrictive Provisions of Policy&emdash;Size of Type.&emdash;Under the terms of the statute (Code, sec. 3252) an insurance company cannot defeat recovery on a policy by reliance upon conditions or restrictive provisions thereof not printed in type of the size by the statute, nor written with pen and ink in or on the policy.</p> <p>3. Insubance&emdash;Forfeiture&emdash;Restrictive Provisions of Policy&emdash;Size of Type&emdash;Inequitable Claim of Assured.&emdash;Where an insurance is seeking to escape liability for the surrender value of its policy on the ground that the policy was not surrendered witnin the time prescribed by a provision of the policy, it is not for the beneficiary, while claiming the surrender value under that same provision, to insist that the time limit fixed by the provision shall be excluded because not printed in type of the required size nor written with pen and ink in or on the policy. This is not a violation of the maxim that “he who seeks equity, must do equity.”</p>