Harding v. Littlehale

• Decision Date: 13 November 1889
• Citation: 22 N.E. 703,150 Mass. 100
• Parties: HARDING v. LITTLEHALE et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

150 Mass. 100

22 N.E. 703

HARDING v. LITTLEHALE et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Bristol.

November 13, 1889

COUNSEL

W.C. Parker and E.L. Barney, for appellants.

L.L.B Holmes and E.D. Stetson, for appellee.

OPINION

KNOWLTON J.

The statutes of 1885, c. 183, made important changes in the law relative to life and casualty insurance on the assessment plan. Section 1 is as follows: "Every contract whereby a benefit is to accrue to a party or parties named therein upon the death or physical disability of a person, which benefit is in any degree or manner conditioned upon persons holding similar contracts, shall be deemed a contract of insurance on the assessment plan, and the business involving the issuance of such contracts shall be carried on in this commonwealth only by duly-organized corporations, which shall be subject to the provisions and requirements of this act but nothing herein contained shall be construed as applicable to organizations which conduct their business as fraternal societies, on the lodge system, or to organizations which do not employ paid agents in soliciting business, or limit their certificate-holders to a particular order or fraternity, or to the employes of a particular town or city, designated firm, business house, or corporation; or to organizations which are unincorporated, and limit the amount of every certificate issued to a maximum amount, not exceeding five hundred dollars on any one risk. If the benefit is to accrue through the death of the insured person, the contract shall be of life insurance; if through the accidental death only, or the physical disability, from accident or sickness, of the insured, it shall be of casualty insurance." In the first part of the section is a broad and comprehensive definition of insurance on the assessment plan. The last part of the section marks the distinction between life insurance and casualty insurance. In the middle of the section, certain classes of organizations are excepted from the provisions of the act. The second section provides for the formation of corporations to carry on the business of life or casualty insurance on the assessment plan. Section 3 relates to existing corporations engaged in transacting that business, and authorizes the reincorporation of such corporations, with a proviso "that nothing in this act contained shall be construed as requiring or making it obligatory upon any such corporation to reincorporate; and any such corporation may continue to exercise all rights, powers, and privileges conferred by this act, or its articles of incorporation, not inconsistent herewith, the same as if reincorporated hereunder." This section gives existing corporations all the benefits of the statute, without their taking formal action of any kind, or making any change, further than may be necessary to comply with the requirements of the act as to their management, and the transaction of their business. It includes all corporations coming within the definition contained in the first section.

Under this statute there can be no doubt that a corporation may insure an applicant for his own benefit, and that in such a case the proceeds of the policy, after his death, will go to his executor or administrator, for the benefit of his estate. The provisions of sections 10 and 11, which forbid insurance for the benefit of persons who have no...