AN INSURANCE CASE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 19

AN INSURANCE CASE.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Wanganui, October 14 At the Supreme Court to day the c ;S3 of the National Life Insurance Oompuiy v. Loudon, a canvasser for tfce Government Insurance Department, was commenced. The claim is one of £2OOO, for alleged slanderous statements made by Loucon in trying to get business, to the iffict that the National Mutual was not sound, and must soon come to grief at the rate it was paying for new business ; and, further, that it took lives without medical examination. Mr Chapman of Wellington appeared for plaintiff, and Mr Barmcoat, of Wanganui, for the defendant. The plaintiff & evidence up to the midday adjournment generally corroborative of the statements made in the claim. ' Wanganui, October 15. In the case of the National Mutual Life Association v London, for slander, the jury last ni"ht returned a verdict of Is on the arst count. ° The question of costs is to be argued before the Chief Justice in Chambers. The case attracted considerable attention amongst the insurance community, as defendant is a Government Insurance canvasser, and had used arguments tending to show that it was not safe to insure in the plaintiff’s company, and had thereby materially damaged the National Mutual business. Defendant when in the box would not admit having said that the company was unsound, but acknowledged having used the statement of an eminent actuary that no company could pay over 25 per cent for new business without endangering their stability, and then quoting figures to show that the plaintiff company paid 34 p*r cent, leaving his hearers to draw their own inferences.