Grange v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance

Citations

• 235 Pa. 320
• 84 A. 392
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 545

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Life insurance — Mutual policy — Premium notes— Sharing in Profits — Equity.</p> <p>1. Where a mutual life insurance policy containing a clause for sharing in surplus profits provides for punctual payment of premiums in cash, but does not forbid the taking of premium notes by the company, and does provide that “all outside liability under this policy shall be first paid off before paid up insurance shall be issued in its place,” the holder of the policy cannot object that the company accepted premium notes, on other policies of the same class, where it appears that such notes were always taken before the premiums were due, and there is no evidence of any default in payment on them.</p> <p>2. Where the holder of such a policy files a bill in equity for specific performance of his contract of insurance, and for an accounting of apportioned surplus or profits, the plaintiff cannot complain that his share of the surplus was reduced by the acceptance by the company of premium notes, before premiums were due, inasmuch, as, even if the acceptance of the premium notes was not in accordance with the express terms of the contract, it would be impossible to ascertain the damage, if any, which plaintiff suffered because of such violation, for there would be no way of determining which, or how 'many, of those who gave premium notes would have managed to pay the premium in cash, if the company had refused to accept the notes.</p> <p>3. Where a mutual insurance policy provides that “the surplus derived from all policies on this plan which shall not be in force by payment of premiums as above specified, at the date of the completion of their respective accumulated surplus periods, shall be apportioned equitably among such policies only as shall complete” the period, and a court of equity on a bill for specific performance of the contract and for an accounting finds as a fact upon sufficient evidence that the officers of the company properly and without fraud apportio