Lake v. New York Life Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 17 February 1908 |
| Docket Number | 16,715 |
| Citation | 45 So. 959,120 La. 971 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | LAKE v. NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO. et al |
Rehearing Denied March 16, 1908.
Appeal from First Judicial District Court, Parish of Caddo; Thomas Fletcher Bell, Judge.
Action by Mayme Lake against the New York Life Insurance Company and Jacob C. Simon. From the judgment, Simon appeals. Reversed and rendered.
Wise Randolph & Rendall, for appellant.
William Alexander Mabry, for appellee.
OPINION
The defendant insurance company has deposited in court the proceeds of four insurance policies on the life of Elias Lake, to be litigated over by the plaintiff, Mrs. Mayme Lake, surviving widow of Elias Lake and administratrix of his succession, and Jacob C. Simon, the real defendant in the case, who was the assignee of the policies.
Plaintiff contends that the policies were assigned to Simon merely in pledge, and that the debt secured by the pledge was not as large as is pretended by Simon; and, in alternative, plaintiff contends that, if the assignment was an absolute transfer, it was null except to the extent that Simon was the creditor of her husband, and as such had an insurable interest in his life.
We experience no difficulty in finding, with the learned trial judge, that the assignment was intended to be absolute, and that the debt was as large as claimed by Simon. Lake and Simon were fellow clerks in the employ of Simon's brother-in-law. Lake had a family to support, and had no means outside of his salary of $ 75 to $ 100 a month. Simon was a bachelor, living rent and board free at his sister's, and receiving an income of $ 300 a month from his salary and an investment of $ 20,000. The two were friends. Simon had at divers times made small loans to Lake, which, with capitalized interest, had grown at the time of the assignment to $ 2,834.20. The assignment came about in the following manner. Lake sought to borrow $ 1,000 more of Simon, and in applying for the loan informed him that his intention was to insure his life in favor of his wife for $ 1,000, and to take out at the same time $ 10,000 additional, and assign the latter to him in payment of the debt already due and of the additional loan applied for. This plan was carried out. Four policies of $ 2,500 each were taken out by Lake in the defendant company on his own life payable to his executors, administrators, and assigns, and a few days after their issuance were assigned over in full ownership to Simon, and Simon surrendered to Lake all the notes and duebills he held representing the old debt and representing $ 250, which he had in the meantime let him have out of the $ 1,000, and paid him the balance of the $ 1,000. Simon was to pay all the premiums, including the first.
Simon was not related to Lake by blood or marriage, and had no other insurable interest in his life than as creditor.
The law seems to be fairly settled that a life insurance policy is an incorporeal...
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