Guarantee Loan & Trust Co. v. Fay

Citations

• 14 Wash. 536
• 45 P. 153
• 1896 Wash. LEXIS 402

Syllabus

<p>CONSTITUTIONAL LAW —IMPAIRMENT OF OBLIGATION OF CONTRACTS — STATUTE EXEMPTING PROCEEDS OF INSURANCE POLICIES.</p> <p>A policy of life insurance and the money to become due under it, belong from the moment the policy is issued to the beneficiary therein named, and it is beyond the power of the insured to transfer to any other person the interest of such beneficiary.</p> <p>A legislative enactment which so far affects the remedy subsisting when and where a contract is made, as substantially to impair and lessen the value of such contract, conflicts with § 10, art. 1, of the Federal constitution, providing that ‘ ‘ no state shall pass any law . . . impairing the obligation of contracts.”</p> <p>A statute should not be given a retroactive construction, when to so construe it impairs existing rights, unless it clearly appears that such was the legislative intention.</p> <p>Act of March 20, 1895, providing that ‘1 the proceeds or avails of all life insurance shall be exempt from all liability for any debt” construed and held to be prospective merely.</p>