Bulger v. The Wash. Life Ins. Co. Of N.Y.

• Decision Date: 30 September 1879
• Citation: 63 Ga. 329
• Parties: BULGER v. The Washington Life Insurance Company of New York.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

63 Ga. 329

BULGER v. The Washington Life Insurance Company of New York.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(September Term, 1879.)

Page 329Insurance. Equity. Contracts. Before Judge FlEming. Chatham Superior Court. May Term, 1879.

Mrs. Bulger filed her bill in equity to enforce the payment of $2,000.00 which Paul J. Bulger, her husband, had on his life in the Washington Life Insurance Company of New York, stating, in brief, the following facts: On the 12th of April, 1866, Paul J. Bulger insured with one Andrew M. Ross, the agent of the said company, for $2,000.00, for the annual premium of $58.72, the policy being for her benefit. This amount he paid for ten years to Ross, the said agent, in Savannah. On the--of February, 1876, Ross died, and when the premium due April 12, 1876, was payable there was no agent in Savannah; hence payments stopped. No payments were made during 1876 and 1877. A few months before his death, he wrote a letter to the company stating that from memoranda sent him, he had dividends to his credit sufficient to pay for the years 1876 and 1877 up to the 12th of April, 1878; and as there was no agent in Savannah, to inform him to whom to pay the next premium. No answer was received to this, and on the 10th of February, 1878, he died. A statement was made by the company to Bulger that $117.20 of addition outstanding insurance was to his credit. This he took for dividends, and if his surmise had been correct, would have been twice $58.72, the annual premium, and would have paid for the years 1876 and 1877, to the 12th of April, 1878, and would have covered his death. After his death, the company wrote that the amount of dividends converted intocash was only $52.12, which ran his policy to 4th of *March, 1877, and declined to pay. During the first three years of his insurance, to-wit: 1866, 1867 and 1868, the company made Mr. Bulger pay $20 a year extra premium, amounting in all to $60.00, for a right he was entitled to for the original premium ($5872), coupled with a privilege foreignto his business. [The privilege granted was to fun a locomotive or stationary engine. The policy allowed the running of a stationary engine.] Three years Bulger paid this. This $60.00 extra premiums the bill endeavors to have applied as a regular premium, which would continue the policy from the 4th of March, 1877, beyond the death of the insured. The company declared a dividend in January, 1877. If the dividends to his credit on the 12th of April, 1876,...