RETURN OF PREMIUM

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 121, 24 May 1928, Page 13

RETURN OF PREMIUM

SUCCESSFUL CLAIM (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) , NEW PLYMOUTH, 23rd May. Insurance agents from rival companies, some of them taking notes, were present in numbers in the Supremo Court to-day whon Agnes O. B. Hicksy wife of Robert Hicks, of Hawera. succeeded in a claim against the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company for tho return of a premium of £113 16s 8d paid for a "probate" policy on her life. Tho agents for the society, F. E. Dejongh and H. J. Harnish, were submitted to a searching cross-examina-tion, both by counsel and by his Honour. :': ■'..". '■'■ The case for the plaintiff was-heard last week, and on the suggestion of Mr. Justice Reed that Hicks had misunderstood the position, counsel was granted an adjournment to ascertain whether the company would agree to cancel the proposal. No solution on this basis was reached, however, and the hearing of the defence was proceeded with to-day. It had been suggested by Mrs. : Hicks that the agents had wrongly told her that the amoun*, payable on the policy would cover death and succession duties on the estate of her husband, who was 72 years of age, thus protecting her children's interests, When the document arrived it contained no clauses to this effect. The defence was a' complete denial of the allegations. .After evidence for the defence had been heard, Mr. Justice Reed expressed the opinion that the parties could not be said to be bound by the policy, until they had seen and agreed to the conditions on the policy. Thero was no contract till tho plaintiff had seen the policy, read it, and decided that she would accept tho conditions. He suggested that tho proposal and tho policy might be construed as an offer and acceptance respectively. The terms were not known to tho. person concerned until the policy was actnally delivered.