Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/80

 Rh lina: '. . . Bat it is also well settled that a person may insure his own life and make the policy payable to whomsoever he chooses, even a beneficiary who has no insurable interest in his life, provided that the transac tion is bona fide and not a mere cover to evade the law against wager policies.'" So many apparently impossible tasks turn out to be within the power of peculiarly skilled persons, that it would be injudicious to insist very strongly upon the impossibility of reconciling those two sections. The two quotations have been inserted here in order that the reader may decide for himself whether this book is a safe guide for begin ners. Upon the question whether these quota tions give a just impression of the nature of the book, the learned reader will do well to refer to sections 45, 46, 55, 90, 181, 205. A minor defect is the historical introduc tion, which reproduces most' of the errors of the old books and ignores the amendments required iby the later authorities. This review is based upon the impression that the book is meant for students or for practitioners who are gaining their first in formation as to insurance. Experts will not be harmed by the points to which attention has been directed; and their only objections to the book will be that it does not add any thing to their knowledge and that the titlepage is somewhat overloaded. It was hardly necessary to call attention to the six lines of text and the lines of citations on casualty insurance, nor even to emphasize so conspic uously the twelve pages of the chapter on employers' liability, fidelity, credit, and title insurance.

THE LAW OF INSURANCE; FIRE, LIFE, ACCIDENT, GUARANTEE. By IVilliam A. Kcrr. St. Paul: Keefe-Davidson Company. 1902. (xi -f- 917 pp.)

In section 3 is the definition that: "An in surance contract is an agreement whereby one party, for a consideration, (a) agrees to indemnify another party to a specified amount against loss or damage from speci

fied causes, or (b) agrees to pay to another a certain sum of money on the happening of a given contingency or event." This certainly sounds as though all wagers and other con ditional contracts are instances of insurance. Yet section 13 says that "indemnity and pro tection against loss are the fundamentals of an insurance contract." This latter state ment unquestionably limits and corrects the former; but it indicates the clanger of hasty definition, and it requires in turn a more thor ough discussion of the nature of life insur ance than is found in this work. In section 4 it is said that: "There are seven different classes of insurance, viz.: (a) fire insurance; (b) life insurance; (c) marine insurance; (d) accident insurance; (e) cas ualty insurance; (f) guaranty insurance; (g) real estate and title insurance." What has become of tornado insurance, transportation insurance, and the celebrated insurance against twins? Are these—and a long list of other known varieties—to be included in casualty insurance? If so, the seven kinds actually enumerated by the author might well be reduced to one or two. Yet the real fact is that enumeration, like definition, has dan gers, and that the enumerator will do well to protect himself with an "etc." There are still other discouraging failures to make distinctions carefully. Thus on page 283 it is said that: "In all cases there must be a reasonable ground to expect some ben efit or advantage to the beneficiary from the continuance of the life insured; otherwise the beneficiary would be directly interested in the early death of the insured. A policy issued to one who is not directly interested in the continuance of the life of the insured has a tendency to create a desire for his death. Such policies are, therefore, independently of any statute upon the subject, condemned as being contrary to public policy. Every per son has an insurable interest in his own life and may effect an insurance thereon for the benefit of a relative or friend." Neither text nor annotation indicates that the author dis tinguishes between applicant and beneficiary or that he is aware of a difference of opinion as to the beneficiary's needing an interest.