Swift v. Railway Passenger & Freight Conductors' Mutual Aid & Benefit Ass'n

Citations

• 96 Ill. 309
• 1880 Ill. LEXIS 35

Syllabus

<p>1. Assignment—of insurance on life policy in equity. A party holding a policy in an association which entitled him, in case of personal injury, to certain benefits, and the sum of $2500 to his representatives, etc., on his death, on payment of all assessments against him, and he being absent from home and indebted for assessments which he was unable to pay, sent his wife a writing that he made his life policy read for her benefit in case of his death, and for her special benefit and all that might be derived therefrom; and also wrote to her of his inability to pay his dues, and that “ this makes the policy yours, if you will keep it up;” and she paid the assessments accordingly: Held, that this, in connection with the wife’s act, amounted to an equitable assignment of the sum payable by the policy on his death, but not of the sum payable for personal injury, and that on his death she was entitled to receive the sum due on the policy.</p> <p>2. Lite Policy—right to assign same. When neither the wife nor the children of an assured have any vested interest, conditional or otherwise, in an insurance of the party’s life so long as he lives, but the contract is between the assured and the insurer, the assured may make an equitable assignment of the same.</p>