SMALLFIELD'S LIFE INSURANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3525, 4 October 1921, Page 42

SMALLFIELD'S LIFE INSURANCE.

SUPREME COURT ACTION. PROCEEDINGS STAYED. AUCKLAND, September 27. Considered judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Adams in the application of the Government Life Insurance Commissioner for a stay of proceedings in the action brought by Lucy Smallfield. widow of C. R. Smallfield. stock agent, Hamilton, for the sum of £SCO for lite insurance. His Honor held that at the time the writ was issued there were points in dispute which, under the policy, had to be referred to arbitration. At both inquests on deceased defendant sought to establish suicide. The coroner’s verdict was similar in both cases of death from heart failure, the coroner not finding the cause of that failure, and thus leaving the matter an open subject to the presumption of innocence. In regard to the contention for ihe widow that there were clauses in the Life Insurance Act which enabled the matter to be dealt with in court, his Honor had come to the conclusion, reluctantly, that that was not so. “If,” said his Honor, “I had been free to deal with the summons on the footing of an agreement to refer, I should have considered it was a case in which a stay should be refused upon the grounds slated by counsel for plaintiff. J lie Statute is, however, binding upon both parties, and removes from the jurisdiction of the court all disputes between the commissioner and any person who has contracted for any annuity or payment under the Act, or anyone claiming to be such a person’s executor, administrator, or assignee. The proceedings in the action will, therefore, be stayed.