Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, by GEORGE BLISS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 93074 BAKER & GODWIN, PRINTERS, NO 25 PARK ROW, N. Y. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. As this book is the direct outgrowth of my own professional practice, the story of its origin is the best justification for its publication. For several years I have been obliged to pass frequently upon questions connected with the law of Life Insurance. When this necessity arose, I found that there was no American work upon the subject published since 1854. In that year the works of Angell and of Reynolds appeared, as well as republications of the treatises of Bunyon and Ellis, the latter with some notes of American cases. These works, with a compilation by Bonney, still constitute, I believe, the American literature of Life Insurance in its legal aspects, so far as it is contained in separate works. Phillips' elaborate work treats, however, of Life Insurance in connection with Fire and Marine Insurance, and the subject is of course considered in the various works on Contract. In England, a second edition of Bunyon's work was published in 1868. It has not been reprinted in this country, though it is the ablest book upon the subject, and the following pages will show that I have been greatly indebted to it. But it contains no reference to American cases, and much of it is nearly useless here. Finding that there were no textbooks of a later date than 1854, I commenced the preparation of a full abstract of all the cases upon the subject reported since that date; and when that was done, I found it convenient to extend my labor back to the prior cases. Having thus collected the necessary crude material, I was subsequently induced to undertake the preparation of this book, which has been completed amid the pressure of an active practice, and chiefly in hours stolen from recreation and rest. The business of Life Insurance has received an enormous development within a few years. In this country it is practically a quarter of a century old (the oldest policy now in force dating from 1843), but the business received no great development till within about fifteen years. Official statistics show that while, in 1858, there were in force less than forty-three thousand policies, insuring about one hundred and sixteen million dollars, there were, at the close of 1870, in existence nearly seven hundred and forty thousand policies, insuring nearly two thousand millions of dollars, a sum little less than the national debt-while the annual premiums had increased from less than five million dollars, in 1860, to nearly one hundred millions, in 1870. The total number of policies issued, in 1870, was over one hundred and eighty thousand. There were terminated, in 1870, by death or lapse, about one hundred thousand policies, and not less than twenty million dollars became payable, during that year, on six thousand four hundred claims arising from death. Accident insurance dates, in this country, from about 1864. This enormous business cannot, of course, be transacted without an increasing necessity for appeal to the courts. Two-thirds of a million of continuing contracts, upon which payments of premium are ordinarily required to be made from one to four times a year, and which involve the settlement, yearly, of over six thousand four hundred claims, covering twenty millions of dollars, must inevitably occasion honest differences of opinion, which the courts alone can settle, while from the manner in which the business is transacted cases of fraud are of common occurrence. The Insurance Companies have manifested great reluctance in resorting to the courts. While they have sometimes contested losses upon grounds seemingly wholly technical, and interposed defenses apparently devoid of merit, such instances have been very rare and greatly less frequent than those in which they have submitted to what they believed to be extortion and fraud. The indications are strong that the Companies are becoming satisfied that self-preservation requires them to litigate more frequently in future. The report of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance, for 1870, shows that in thirty-five companies which refer to the subject, there were, at the close of 1870, about one hundred and fifty unsettled or disputed cases, involving nearly eight hundred thousand dollars. When the United States Digest was published, in 1846, it contained, among its reported cases, only a single case of Life Insurance, being one which was decided in 1815, though the Reports show four other cases decided prior to 1850. But Mr. Bigelow's valuable collection of cases upon Life and Accident Insurance, reported prior to January, 1871, contains one hundred and nineteen such cases, occupying eight hundred pages, while he accidentally omits three which had then been pub lished. In the brief period which has since elapsed twenty-seven new cases have been reported, and this work contains references to twenty-two unreported cases. The publication of a Journal devoted exclusively to insurance law has been recently commenced at St. Louis. I have intended to refer to all the reported cases published prior to September in the present year, though in the latter part of the work, I have brought my references down to a still later period. I have referred not only to the standard English and American Reports, but to those of Scotland and Ireland, which contain many instructive cases. In some of the New York cases, I have gone back of the Reports, to the original papers on file. In treating of those portions of the subject which are common to the law of Life and Fire Insurance, such as warranty, representation, agency and waiver, I have referred freely to decisions in cases of fire insurance, generally, however, indicating by the initial "F" the fact that the case was one of fire insurance where its title did not show it. The chapter on Guarantee Insurance is little more than an abridgment of that of Bunyon, adding references to a few later cases. Bigelow's book has been of great use in passing the work through the press, though it was not published till my manuscript was nearly completed. I have, however, been indebted to it for a single unreported case. Mr. I have doubtless made errors, both of omission and commission, and shall be obliged to any one who will call my attention to them. The plan of the work is also perhaps open to criticism, but it has been adopted, after due consideration of its advantages and disadvantages, as applicable to the particular subject treated. I may at least, fairly claim for this volume that it contains the fullest presentation, which has yet appeared, of the law of Life and Accident Insurance, as found in the decided cases of America, England, Ireland and Scotland. My professional brethren will place me under obligations if they will kindly forward to me reports of any cases of Life or Accident Insurance which may, from time to time, come under their notice. In conclusion, I acknowledge my indebtedness to several of the State Reporters and to members of the bar, for unpublished opinions and for numerous courtesies. GEORGE BLISS, JR. NEW YORK, December, 1871. |