§ 31-4723 — Industrial life policies — Prohibited provisions.

No policy of industrial life insurance shall be delivered or issued for delivery, in the District, if it contains any of the following provisions:

(1) A provision limiting the time within which any action at law or in equity may be commenced to less than 3 years after the cause of action shall accrue;

(2) Except for provisions relating to misstatement of age, suicide, aviation, and military or naval service in time of war, a provision for any mode of settlement at maturity, after the expiration of the contestable period of the policy, of less value than the amount insured on the face of the policy plus dividend additions, if any, less any indebtedness to the company on or secured by the policy, and less any premium that may, by the terms of the policy, be deducted. This paragraph shall not apply to any nonforfeiture provision;

(3) A provision for forfeiture of the policy for failure to repay any loan on the policy, or to pay interest on such loan, while the total indebtedness on the policy, including interest, is less than the loan value thereof;

(4) A provision to the effect that the agent soliciting the insurance is the agent of the person insured under said policy, or making the acts or representations of such agent binding upon the person so insured under said policy;

(5) A provision permitting the payment of funeral benefits in merchandise or services, or permitting the payment of any benefits other than in lawful money of the United States;

(6) A provision whereby the benefits or any part thereof accruing under such policy upon the death of a person insured may be paid to any designated undertaker or undertaking firm or corporation or to any person or persons engaged in or connected with such business, without the written consent of the person or persons to whom such benefits would otherwise be paid, or so as in any way to deprive the personal representative or family of the deceased of the advantages of competition in procuring and purchasing supplies and services in connection with the burial of the person insured; or

(7) A provision that the liability of the company by reason of the insured’s death shall be limited to less than the face amount of the policy if the death of the insured results from a specified kind or character of disease.

Legislative History

June 19, 1934, ch. 672, ch. V, § 23; May 8, 1950, 64 Stat. 104, ch. 157, § 7