Young v. Hipple

Citations

• 273 Pa. 439
• 117 A. 185
• 25 A.L.R. 1541
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 596

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Life insurance — Insurable interest — Premiums — Creditor — Evidence—Burden of proof — Family relationship — Stepchild — In loco parentis — Presumption of continuance of status— Province of court and jury — Act of May 20,1921, P. L. 916.</p> <p>1. Where a beneficiary certificate or policy of insurance is made payable to or assigned to one who has no insurable interest, but the premiums are paid by the insured, the beneficiary may recover the amount due thereon.</p> <p>2. Under like circumstances the beneficiary may pay the premiums, under agreement with and as a loan to the insured, and recover the amount of the certificate or policy.</p> <p>3. Where a certificate or policy is payable to a named person, the burden of proof of establishing facts which will exclude the right of such person to have the amount thereof, is upon the one who denies the right, and this burden is not carried by simply showing that the beneficiary’s relationship to the insured is not close enough to establish an insurable interest, if there were other circumstances from which such insurable interest might reasonably be supposed to exist.</p> <p>4. Prior to the Act of May 20, 1921, P. L. 916, a stepchild was not within the class of persons, who, solely by reason of relationship, would be held to have an insurable interest in the life of his or her step-parent.</p> <p>5. If a step-parent occupies the relation in loco parentis to a stepchild, the latter has an insurable interest in the life of the former.</p> <p>6. While the relation in loco parentis may be destroyed by the removal of the stepchild from the home of its stepparent, if it was intended to have this effect, yet it does not necessarily do so, and the burden of proof that there was an intent to sever this relation is upon the person who avers it.</p> <p>7. The law presumes the continuance of a status once shown to exist.</p> <p>8. An intention to continue the relation in loco parentis, despite the removal of the stepchi