New York Life Ins. Co. v. Wright

• Decision Date: 29 February 1924
• Docket Number: 14641.
• Citation: 122 S.E. 706,31 Ga.App. 713
• Parties: NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO. v. WRIGHT, INS. COM'R.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

122 S.E. 706

31 Ga.App. 713

NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO. v. WRIGHT, INS. COM'R.

No. 14641.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Second Division

February 29, 1924

Syllabus by the Court.

All "premiums" and "gross receipts" of insurance companies doing business in this state, which are subject to taxation under the General Tax Act of 1918 (Ga Laws 1918, p. 43, § 6, on page 73), as amended by the act of 1919 (Ga. Laws 1919, p. 45, § 2, on page 54), include, as applied to life insurance companies, the actual maximum table rate of premium which the policy holder is under his contract of insurance, required to pay to the insurance company, and which obligation is discharged by the policy holder either by a payment in full to the company or by a partial payment thereon, supplemented by a credit made thereon by the company of any so-called "dividend" which has accrued to the policy holder, although such "dividend" may be an amount which had been collected from the policy holder as part payment of a former premium on the policy, but which was in fact a surplus collected over an amount which had been afterwards ascertained as being a sufficient premium for carrying the policy for the period for which such payment had been made, and which was money belonging to the policy holder and returnable to him.

The word "premiums" as used in the act is to be given the construction placed upon it by ordinary usage, and in accordance with its apparent meaning when used in insurance policies, and which is placed upon it by agents of insurance companies in dealing with the public, which includes the maximum table rate premium stipulated in the policy, the payment of which the company can exact as a condition precedent to keeping the policy in life, and which in fact it does exact when the insured's obligation to pay it is discharged by the company crediting the payment with the so-called "dividend." This construction of the word is demanded by the language of the act, which taxes "all premiums in money or otherwise received" by insurance companies.

"Gross receipts" as used in the act include the actual cash collected by the company on obligations from its policy holders, together with money in the hands of the company due the policy holders which is credited by the company upon the indebtedness. It cannot be assumed that the Legislature, in using the words "gross receipts," intended to distinguish between money actually received by the...