Bockover v. Superintendent of Ins. Department

• Decision Date: 28 February 1887
• Citation: 91 Mo. 177,3 S.W. 833
• Parties: BOCKOVER v. SUPERINTENDENT OF INS. DEPARTMENT.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

3 S.W. 833

91 Mo. 177

BOCKOVER v. SUPERINTENDENT OF INS. DEPARTMENT.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

February 28, 1887.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — IMPAIRING OBLIGATION OF CONTRACT — INSURANCE — CORPORATIONS — INSOLVENCY.

Rev. St. Mo. § 6034, provides that if any insurance company of the state shall, under the requirements of any law of another state, have on deposit in such other state securities upon which the citizens of such state have, by virtue of its laws, a lien, claim, or right prior to that of the citizens of other states, and the company prove insolvent, no citizen or resident of the state or country in which such deposit is held shall be entitled to share in the distribution of the proceeds of the deposits or other assets in this state until the amount deposited in such other state or country shall be deducted from the claims of the person who, by the laws of such state or country, hold such prior or superior lien, and until the other policy claimants and creditors of said company shall have received from the proceeds of deposits or other assets an equal per centum upon their claims. Held, that this statute, in its application to policies issued in such other state, before its passage, is not unconstitutional, as impairing the obligation of the contract. The statute simply places the foreign policy-holder upon an equal footing with the home one.¹

Appeal from St. Louis circuit court.

Wm. S. Relfe, for respondent. H. T. Kent, for appellant.

BLACK, J.

Bockover, the plaintiff, who is a citizen of the state of Virginia, insured his life in the sum of $5,000 with the Life Association of America, a corporation organized under the laws of this state. The policy bears date September 28, 1872. The company became insolvent, and, at the instance of the superintendent of the insurance department of this state, was dissolved by a decree of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis on the tenth November, 1879. The plaintiff presented his claim, and it was allowed, in the sum of $4,415.15, and placed in the fourth class of debts, under section 6047, Rev. St. 1879. The superintendent has declared dividends on this class of claims, amounting in all to 17.22 per centum. The company, in order to do business in the state of Virginia, deposited with the treasurer of that state securities amounting to the sum of $10,000, for the benefit of policy-holders residing in Virginia. After the dissolution of the company, and prior to the payment of any dividends on the fourth class of debts, the plaintiff and others, citizens of Virginia, proceeded against the fund there. That proceeding resulted in a distribution of the amount there on deposit among the policy-holders of that state, and from which source plaintiff received $534.84. The superintendent here paid the plaintiff $225.45, which, with the amount he received from the Virginia fund, makes up the 17.22 per centum.

The plaintiff insists that he is entitled to receive the full amount of the dividends, regardless of the amount he received from the deposit of securities with the treasurer of Virginia. He therefore moved the court in which the affairs of the dissolved corporation were pending for an order directing the superintendent to pay him the further sum of $534.83. The circuit court declined to award the relief prayed for.

The superintendent, as a justification of his action, relied upon section 6034, Rev. St., which is as follows: "If any company of this state shall, under the requirements of any law of another state or...