POLICY OF INSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENT and POLICY of insurance for any payment agreed to be made during the sickness of any person, or his in capacity from personal injury, or by way ciindemnity against loss or damage of or to any property .001 For the purposes of the Stamp Act the expression "policy of life insurance " means a policy of assurance upon a life or lives, or upon an event or contingency relating to or depending upon a life or lives except a policy of insurance against accident ; and the expression " policy of insurance against aceideig" means a policy of insurance for a payment agreed to be made upon the death of a person only from accident or violence or otherwise than from a natural cause, or as compensation for personal injury. An accident policy includes any notice or advertisement in a newspaper or other publication, which purports to insure the payment of money upon the death of or injury to the holder or bearer of the newspaper or publication containing the notice, only from accident or violence or otherwise than from a natural cause. Such a policy is not charged with any further duty than one penny merely, because it insures some periodical payment during sickness or incapacity from personal injury. The duty of one penny upon a policy of insurance other than a policy of sea insurance or life insurance may be denoted by an adhesive stamp, which is to be cancelled by the parson by whom the policy is first executed. A fine of E20 is incurred by any one who (1) Receives, or takes credit for, a premium or consideration for an insurance other than a sea insurance, and cloys not, within one month after receiving it or taking credit therefor, make out and execttte a duly statnped policy of insurance ; or (2) Makes, executes, or delivers out, or pays or allows in account, or agrees to pay or allow in account, any money upon or in respect of a policy other than a policy of sea insurance which is not duly stampe.d.
Insurable interest.—'1'he principles by which the existence of an insurable interest are determined are practically the same whether the case is one of life or any other fonn of insurance. There are, however, many eases peculiar to life assurance. As to an assurance of one's own life, it may be laid down that every Man is presumed to have an interest in his own life, and in every part of it. It is only reasonable, therefore, that an executor who sues on a policy effected by his testator on a specified period of his life, say two years (Wainwright v. liland), is not bound to show that the testator had any special reason for making such a limited assurance. The necessity for the
existence of an insurable interest is created by the Gambling Act, 1774, which conclusively prohibited the gambling and speculative transactions in life assurance which the common law had formerly allayed. The provisions of this Act are to the following effect :— Whereas it bath been found by experience that the making of assurances on lives, and other events wherein the assured shall have no interest, bath introduced A mischievous kind of gambling, lie it enacted that from and after the passing of tltis Act no assurance shall be made by any person or company, on the life or lives of any person or persons, or on any other ev cut or ,Itvents whatsoever, wherein the persmv or persons for whose use, benefit, or on whose account such policies shall he made, shall have no interest, or by way of gaining and wagering ; and that every assurance. made contrary- to the true intent and meaning hereof shall be null and void to all intents and purposes whatever. And be it further enacted that in all eases where the assured has an interest in such life or lives, event or events, no greater stun shall be reeovered or received fmtn the assurers than the amount or value of thc interest of the assured in such life or lives, event or events.
And though a person has naturally an interest in his OW11 life, yet the law will not permit the provisions of the above statute to be evaded by some subterfuge. For example, a policy may be effected by a certain person upon his own life, but by arrangement the premiums may be paid by some other person who has no insurable.interest in the assured's life, and who is really intended to have the benefit of the assurance, and to vvhom the policy is to be bequeathed or assigned. Under such circumstances that other person is not entitled, by virtue of them alone, to the benefit of the assurance, for the policy will be in fact a wagering policy, and void. Gifts and assignments of policies of a.ssurance are therefore void if merely cloaks for gambling, but not of course if bow 1 fide. Where an assurance is really effected by the person assured, the mere circumstance that another pays the premiums is not conclusive, nor even per 8e sufficient evidence that the assured had no insur able interest tin the policy. A wife is presumed to have an insurable interest in the life of her husband, and consequently when making a claim under a policy effected on his‘life, she is under no obligation to prove her interest.