Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1880 — What Constitutes an Insurance Company. [ARTICLE]

What Constitutes an Insurance Company.

The Circuit Court of St Louis has recently rendered a decision of interest throughout the country. An express employe was insured for the benefit of his wife in three Mutual Aid and Insurance Societies. His wife died a couple of years ago, and he died some time afterwards. There being no children, his wife’s relatives claimed the insurance money as her heirs, while his relatives disputed the claim. The Court decided that these Insurance Societies are not Insurance Companies within the meaning of the law. If the insurance had been in a company, the wife’s heira would be entitled to tine policy on her death, as the policy is a contract, and reads in favor of the beneficiary or his heirs and assigns. In case of the society, however, there is no such contract, and, after the wife dies, the husband can designate a new beneficiary if he chooses, and, if he fails to declare in favor of the wife’s relatives or heirs, they can have no claim to the insuranoe money. Hence the claim of the husband’s heirs was sustained. —Some relations once paying a Lancashire old lady a visit, and prolonging their stay beyond her contemplation or wish, were somewhat taken back one morning, before they were Si, by hearing her call out loudly on e stairs, ** A fine morning for cousins to go home.”