CONTRACTS-MEASURE OF DAMAGES-LIFE INSURANCE CONTRACT

Authors

Howard Van Antwerp, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

When the plaintiff was expelled from defendant Brotherhood an insurance policy issued to the plaintiff by the defendant was canceled and the cash surrender value paid to him in accordance with the terms of his policy. The directors of the Brotherhood later decided that this expulsion had been wrongful, whereupon the plaintiff returned the cash surrender value of the policy and demanded the return of all premiums paid. When this demand was refused, the plaintiff sued to recover damages for wrongful cancellation of his policy. The trial court instructed the jury to return a verdict for the premiums paid with interest, accumulated dividends, and "the value of any rights that he had under the policy which he lost because of its wrongful cancellation." On appeal the verdict was affirmed subject to the remission of excessive damages. Held, where it is not shown that the insured was unacceptable as a risk by another insurer, damages can not exceed the total premiums paid with interest and the accumulated dividends. McLaughlin v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, (S.C. 1950) 57 S.E. (2d) 411.

Recommended Citation

Howard Van Antwerp, CONTRACTS-MEASURE OF DAMAGES-LIFE INSURANCE CONTRACT, 48 Mich. L. Rev. 1191 (1950).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol48/iss8/14