Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1898 — SUICIDE BARS INSURANCE. [ARTICLE]

SUICIDE BARS INSURANCE.

Ftiprcme Justice lliirlnn, nt Washington! Hands Down u Decision. In the United States Supreme Cotirt Monday Justice Harlan handed down nn opinion in tM* case of A. Howard Ritter, executor of William M. Bunk, against the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, involving fhtf' question of whether the heirs of a man who commits suicide when In sound mind can recover on nn insurance policy. The court held (Just they could not. It appear*'] from the fncts stntill that Mr. Rank, a resident of Philadelphia, committed suicide less than a year nftcr incretfilni? ids insurance to the extent of $200,000, making nn aggregate insurance of $500,000 upou his life. Ut the $200,-

000 the New York company carried $75,’000, which it refused to pay outlie ’ground that Hunk was sane when he took his life. -It was shown in the trial court that he had written a letter the day before his death stating that it was his purpose to put au end to his life so that nis life insurance money could he collected for the payment of his debts.