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THE GREEN BAG

the insured, a policy of life insurance is assignable just as any other chose in action, we note Chamberlain v. Butler, 61 Neb. 730. In this case a policy for $5000.00 was as signed for $75.00 to Chamberlain who had no insurable interest, assignee to pay pre miums. Upon the death of Butler his ad ministratrix demanded the insurance from the company which refused on the ground that they had paid it to the assignee of the policy. ' She then brought suit against Chamberlain for $5000.00, minus $75.00, and the four premiums of $135.95 each, paid by him. A decision in her favor by the circuit court was reversed by the Supreme Court, giving as a reason that "until it shall be made to appear that in those jurisdictions where such policies are assignable abso lutely, crimes committed by such assignees are more frequent than in those where assignments of the nature of the one here involved are illegal, we are of opinion that the reasons for holding such transactions void are insufficient." . In Steinback v. Diepenbrock, 158 N.. Y. 24, it was held that if the policy is taken out in good faith it may be treated as any other chose in action and that there is no sufficient reason why he should not be per mitted to go into what he conceives to be the best market to sell or borrow on his policy. The same conclusion was reached in Strike v. Wisconsin Odd Fellows Mut. Life Ins. Co., 95 Wis. 583; Bowen v. Natl. Life Assoc., 63 Conn. 460; Ritter v. Smith, 70 Md. 261; Souder v. Home Friendly Soc., 72 Md. 511; Clogg v. McDaniel, 89 Md. 416; Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Allen, 138 Mass. 24; Dixon v. Nat. Life Ins. Co., 168 Mass. 48; Ashley v. Ashley, 3 Sim. 149; Clark v. Allen, ii R. I. 439; Johnson v. Epps, 14 Ill. App. 201; Brett v. Warnick, 44 Oregon 511; Myers v. Schuman, 54 N. J. Eq. 414, in this case the assignment of the policy was an absolute gift, Stoelker v. Thornton, 88 Ala. 421. McFarland v. Creath, 35 Mo. Appeals 112, Rylander ei alv. Allen, 53 S. E. 1032. In Harrison's Adm'r v. Northwestern

Mutual Life Ins. Co., 94 Atl. 321, decided by the Supreme Court of Vermont, April, 1906, it was held that though the policy was procured for the purpose of immedi ately assigning it to one having no insurable interest and though it was assigned to such person without consideration this did not make it a wagering policy neither did it invalidate the assignment. This decision was based largely on that in Fairchild v. Northeastern Mutual Life Assn., 51 Vt. 613. The time of assignment is a factor which has exerted no small degree of influence over the decisions of courts. If the insured has carried the policy for a long time, and then assigned it, the transaction is looked upon with much less suspicion than when the taking out of the insurance and the assignment, or agreement to assign, are of even date or nearly so. As was held by the court in an English case, Schilling v. Accident Ins. Co., 27 L. J. Ex. 16, where the agreement at the time of the issuance of the policy is that another is to pay the premiums, such agreement is evidence that the interest is really in a third party, and in Clement v. N. Y. Life, 46 S. W. 561, it was held that an agreement to assign, made prior to the issuance of the policy, assignee to pay premiums, vitiates the assignment. The decision in Warnock v. Davis "vas based mainly upon the suspicion with which the court viewed the agreement to assign bear ing even date with the issuance of the policy. But the lapse of the time between the issuance of the policy and its assignment is of consequence merely as tending to show whether the insurance was the act of the nominally insured or of some third person — the assignee. If the latter, then the policy is void unless such person have an insurable interest so that he could have taken out the policy in his own name. The courts do not look with favor upon doing a thing indirectly which the law forbids one to do directly. But if the policy is valid in its inception it matters not how much or how little time elapses before it is assigned.