New York Life Insurance v. Rosenheim

56 Mo. App. 27, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 17
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 2, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 56 Mo. App. 27 (New York Life Insurance v. Rosenheim) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York Life Insurance v. Rosenheim, 56 Mo. App. 27, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 17 (Mo. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinion

Bond, J.

— rThis action was brought by the New York Life Insurance Company against Morris Rosenheim and others on the one hand, and William and Rosa Weisels on the other hand, to compel an interpleading for the sum of $416.46, which had become due on a “Tontine Investment Policy” issued by plaintiff on the life of William Weisels and payable, in: case'of his [30]*30death, during the existence of the policy, to his wife Rosa Weisels if living, and, if not living, to the children of William Weisels. The petition was sustained. The money therein alleged to be due was ordered to be paid into court. The respective parties were required to interplead, and a preliminary injunction which had been granted was continued to the final hearing.

Thereupon an interpleading was had and the cause was tried on the issues thus made and the evidence adduced thereunder, and final judgment rendered discharging the plaintiffs, awarding the sum in controversy to Rosenheim and others andhnaking the injunction perpetual. Erom this judgment an appeal is taken to this court by William and Rosa Weisels.

On the, trial of this case there was evidence tending to show the issuance by the New York Life Insurance Company of its policy of insurance, number 160273, upon the life of William Weisels, which policy was of the class known as “tontine” and matured on the thirteenth of June, 1892, at which time the legal holder among other options was entitled to the following : ‘ ‘ Third. To withdraw in cash the entire equity, that is the reserve and accumulated dividend apportioned by the company to the policy, in addition to any surplus which may be apportioned thereto.”

This policy was payable in case of death of the assured to Rosa Weisels, his wife, if living, and, if not living, to the children of William Weisels.

In the application made for the policy by Rosa Weisels, the beneficiary, there was an agreement that the contract contained in said policy should be construed according to the laws of New York and the charter of the company, and that, unless otherwise mutually agreed in writing, no suit should be brought against the company, except in the courts of that state [31]*31or in the federal courts. This agreement was substantially reiterated in the policy itself, which also recited, to-wit: “This policy is not assignable.”

Tbe evidence also disclosed that Rosa Weisels in 1888 was indebted to the firm of Rosenheim, Levis & Company, who refused her further credit. ' To secure future credit she thereupon executed, jointly with her husband, the following assignment:

“For value received we hereby assign and transfer unto Rosenheim, Levis & Company, of St. Louis, Missouri, the policy of insurance known as 149441 and 160273, issued by the New York Life Insurance Company upon the life of William Weisels, of St. Louis, Missouri, and all dividend, benefit and advantage to be had or derived therefrom, subject to the conditions of said policies, and to the rules and regulations of the company.
“Witness our hands and seals, etc.
“Mrs. Rose Weisels, “William Weisels.”

This assignment was delivered by William Weisels to Rosenheim, Levis & Company as the basis of a further extension of credit by them to his wife, Rosa Weisels.

When the tontine period expired on the policy in question, the equity which the legal holder was entitled to withdraw under the foregoing option amounted to $416.46. Thereupon this fund was claimed by Rosenheim, Levis & Company, because of an alleged balance due on their dealings with Mrs. Weisels, and also claimed by William and Rosa Weisels . on the ground that their assignment thereof was inoperative and void.

The New York Life Insurance Company declined to pay either of the claimants to the fund. Pending some negotiation between the attorneys of the respective claimants, William Weisels brought suit in the [32]*32courts of New York for the fund in controversy. Thereupon the insurance company brought the present bill of interpleader, and secured a preliminary injunction against the. prosecution of any suit against it, except proceedings to be had in this cause.

Mr. Rosenheim testified in substance that his firm sold goods to Mrs. Weisels, but not to Mr. Weisels; that the latter did not owe his firm anything; that Mrs. Weisels, to secure past indebtedness and further credit, had made the assignment under which he claimed; that he made the demand on her for security on the seventeenth of March, 1888; that he continued thereafter to sell her goods up to November 30, 1888, at which time the balance due his firm was $705.19, which is still unpaid; that he did not personally sell the goods to Mrs. Weisels, and that he only knew of their being delivered to her from the fact, that he passed on the hills and gave credit for them, and from the statements of account on the books of his firm; that the amount that she owed them was a balance on that year’s dealings.

The first position assumed by appellants in this court is, that the propriety of the action of the lower court in sustaining the bill of interpleader, and overruling their motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction, is open for review.

This position is untenable. The act of the legislature (Laws of 1891, p. 70) on which it is based, extends the right of appeal to orders dissolving injunctions, etc., and affords to the aggrieved party the right to have the action of the trial court reviewed on an appeal taken from the final judgment in the ease for its rulings, within the purview of the act made prior to such final judgment. This act does not in terms nor purpose dispense with the necessity in all cases of preserving written exceptions to the rulings complained [33]*33of in a bill of exceptions filed during the same term of court at which such rulings were made. Revised Statutes, 1889, secs. 2167, 2168.

The requirements of the statutes last quoted were not complied with by exceptions saved and preserved at the term of court when the bill of interpleader was sustained and the motion to dissolve the injunction overruled. Hence we cannot pass on these rulings of the trial court.

Appellant next contends that the assignment, supra, of the policy on William Weisels’ life is obnoxious : first, to the principle inhibiting wagering policies; or, second, to the prohibition of the statute, (Revised Statutes, 1889, sec. 5866) against assignments of a policy or certificate “to a person having no insurable interest in the insured life.”

It is the settled law of this state that the person, who takes out a policy upon the life of another, must have a pecuniary interest in the life of the assured, “or else the policy will be a gambling or a wager policy which the law will not enforce.” Whitmore v. Knights of Honor, 100 Mo. 46; Singleton v. Ins. Co., 66 Mo. 63; Heusner v. Mutual Ins. Co., 47 Mo. App. 336; Warnock v. Davis, 104 U. S. 775; 1 May on Insurance, section 102a; Equitable Ins. Co. v. Hazlewood, 75 Tex. 351.

In Heusner v. Mutual Ins. Co., supra, this court intimated that an assignment of a life policy by the beneficiary to the assured invested the latter with power to assign the policy.

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Bluebook (online)
56 Mo. App. 27, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-life-insurance-v-rosenheim-moctapp-1894.