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Full-Text Articles in Insurance Law

Word Games: Raising And Resolving The Shortcomings In Accident-Insurance Doctrine That Autoerotic-Asphyxiation Cases Reveal, Sam Erman Aug 2005

Word Games: Raising And Resolving The Shortcomings In Accident-Insurance Doctrine That Autoerotic-Asphyxiation Cases Reveal, Sam Erman

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that autoerotic asphyxiation deaths are accidents and not the results of intentionally self-inflicted injuries. Part I formally analyzes accident-insurance case law to show that current, viable approaches to accident insurance indicate that autoerotic asphyxiation deaths are accidental. Part II claims autoerotic asphyxiation deaths should not trigger intentionally self-inflicted injury exclusion clauses because the practice does not intentionally injure. This Note concludes beneficiaries should recover when accident-insurance policyholders die during autoerotic asphyxiation.


Insurance-Consummation Of The Contract-Delivery Of The Policy, John J. Gaskell S. Ed. Jan 1951

Insurance-Consummation Of The Contract-Delivery Of The Policy, John J. Gaskell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

An application for life insurance was accepted, and a policy issued, mailed to, and received by the agent of the insurer. The application provided that the policy would not take effect until "manual" delivery thereof. The agent made several unsuccessful attempts to deliver the policy, but before any physical transmission of the policy, the insured died. The beneficiaries sued to recover the amount of the policy. The trial court gave judgment for the defendant insurance company. On appeal, held, affirmed. Manual delivery was a valid condition precedent. There having been no manual transmission to the insured, and the plaintiffs …


Insurance-Reinstatement-''Insurability", Joseph G. Egan S.Ed. Jun 1950

Insurance-Reinstatement-''Insurability", Joseph G. Egan S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

lnsured took out a policy of life insurance with defendant company which contained a clause providing for reinstatement within five years after default on presentation "of evidence of insurability satisfactory to the company" and payment of overdue premiums with interest. After default in payment of premiums, insured requested reinstatement. The insured had taken up aviation in the interval between issuance of the policy and the request for reinstatement. The company agreed to reinstate on condition that the insured would agree to a modification of the policy, so that it would not cover death resulting from operation of any kind of …


Insurance-Insurable Interest-Joint Adventurers, Alan P. Goldstein S. Ed. Feb 1950

Insurance-Insurable Interest-Joint Adventurers, Alan P. Goldstein S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff and the deceased were operating an airplane commercially. Plaintiff had purchased the plane, and was paying the deceased $25 per week plus half of the profits of the venture. The deceased acted as pilot, and was instrumental in obtaining business. Plaintiff took out insurance on the plane, and also on the life of the deceased, although their only relationship was through the joint venture. The plane was wrecked and the deceased was killed while on company business. The claim for the plane was paid, but the defendant refused to pay on the life insurance policy, claiming that the plaintiff …


Taxation-Federal Gift Tax-Life Insurance Policies, John W. Riehm S.Ed. Jan 1947

Taxation-Federal Gift Tax-Life Insurance Policies, John W. Riehm S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On December 19, 1930 the petitioner created two trusts, placing in the first five $100,000 life insurance policies on the life of her husband, and in the second, securities, the income from which was to pay premiums on the policies, excess if any to be paid to the petitioner; after the death of her husband the whole of the income from the securities was to be paid to her for life. On death of the husband the proceeds of the life insurance policies were to be used to provide life estates for four named beneficiaries followed by remainders over; and …


Taxation - Income Tax - Exemption Of Proceeds Of Insurance Policies Payable In The Form Of An Annuity, Wilbur Jacobs Mar 1942

Taxation - Income Tax - Exemption Of Proceeds Of Insurance Policies Payable In The Form Of An Annuity, Wilbur Jacobs

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy payable in equal installments over a period of twenty years. The deferred payments had been substituted for payment of the face amount of the policy through an option in the policy exercised by the insured a short time before his death. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue included in gross income the amount by which each payment exceeded one-twentieth of the face amount of the policy on the theory that this excess was interest and hence not within the statute exempting insurance from gross income. Plaintiff sued to recover the tax paid. …


Taxation Of Annuity Contracts Under Estate And Inheritance Taxes, Robert Meisenholder Apr 1941

Taxation Of Annuity Contracts Under Estate And Inheritance Taxes, Robert Meisenholder

Michigan Law Review

A glance at any authoritative encyclopedia will confirm the fact that annuity transactions of one sort or another have existed since earliest civilized times. It was not until 1762, however, that the first insurance company of the world was established; at that time began the issuance of annuity contracts similar to our modem contracts. The popularity of such contracts has increased and decreased at various periods in Great Britain. But in the United States, they have assumed importance only since the beginning of this century and have attained a relatively widespread popularity only since the years of prosperity in the …


Insurance - Delay In Acting On Application - Tort Liability, William C. Wetherbee Jr. Jan 1941

Insurance - Delay In Acting On Application - Tort Liability, William C. Wetherbee Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Appellant, administrator of the deceased's estate, sued the defendant for damages caused by its negligent failure to accept or reject deceased's application for life insurance within a reasonable time. A deposit had been made on the premium, and, but for the delay, the policy would have been approved and the deceased covered by it at the time of his death. The jury returned a verdict for the appellant, who appealed when the judge rendered judgment non obstante veredicto in favor of appellee. Held, that the insurance company was under no duty to accept or reject the application within a …


Insurance - Construction Of Exception Clause "Participating In Aviation", Michigan Law Review Jan 1940

Insurance - Construction Of Exception Clause "Participating In Aviation", Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The insured was killed while riding as a fare-paying passenger on a commercial transport airplane. Plaintiff, decedent's wife, brought suit on his accident insurance policy and recovered. Held, on appeal, that the insured was not "participating in aviation or aeronautics" within the terms of an accident policy excluding indemnity for death resulting from "participation in aviation or aeronautics." Massachusetts Protective Assn. v. Bayersdorfer, (C. C. A. 6th, 1939) 105 F. (2d) 595.


Taxation - Federal Estate Tax - Life Insurance Payable To Specific Beneficiary, Roy L. Steinheimer Dec 1939

Taxation - Federal Estate Tax - Life Insurance Payable To Specific Beneficiary, Roy L. Steinheimer

Michigan Law Review

Six life insurance policies were taken out by decedent upon his own life between March 19, 1925 and January 2, 1929. On July 20, 1932 the decedent, by an instrument in writing, made an assignment of the policies to his wife and named her the beneficiary under the policies. From the date of the assignment until the date of his death, the decedent did not possess any incidents of ownership of the policies though he continued to pay the premiums. The wife of the decedent sued to recover the amount of the tax, assessed and paid on the net proceeds …


Insurance - Supervision By The State - What Constitutes The Insurance Business, Thomas E. Wilson Dec 1938

Insurance - Supervision By The State - What Constitutes The Insurance Business, Thomas E. Wilson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a corporation, advertised that any person who bought goods from certain selected stores would be entitled to receive coupons, and when his coupons amounted to a certain sum he would be entitled to certain death and security benefits up to specified amounts. Plaintiff brought suit against the Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania to enjoin him from interfering with the plaintiff's business. Held, that the plaintiff was carrying on an insurance business and was subject to supervision by the Insurance Commissioner. Hunt v. Public Mutual Benefit Foundation, (C. C. A. 3d, 1938) 94 F. (2d) 749, certiorari denied (U. …


Insurance - Sunstroke As "Accidental Means" Jan 1935

Insurance - Sunstroke As "Accidental Means"

Michigan Law Review

Insured died as a result of sunstroke suffered while playing golf. Held, Justice Cardozo dissenting, that the beneficiary could not recover because sunstroke was not an "accidental means" within a policy insuring against "death from bodily injuries effected directly and independently of all other causes through external, violent, and accidental means." Landress v. Phoenix Mutual Life Ins. Co., 291 U. S. 491, 54 Sup. Ct. 461, 90 A. L. R. 1382 (1934).


Insurance - Application Of Dividends To The Purchase Of Extended Insurance Dec 1934

Insurance - Application Of Dividends To The Purchase Of Extended Insurance

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff hospital claimed a lien upon the personal effects of a deceased patient left in their possession. An Iowa statute defines a hotel, for the purposes of its operator's lien, as including "inn, rooming house, and eating house, or any structure where rooms or board are furnished, whether to permanent or transient occupants." The term "guest" is defined to include "any legal occupant of any hotel as herein defined." Held, that "structure" as used in the statute refers to one used for the entertainment of ordinary individuals, as in the case of the structures enumerated; and that a hospital, …