PAID TOO LATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20013, 2 December 1927, Page 8

PAID TOO LATE

AN INSURANCE PREMIUM CLAIM AGAINST COMPANY" FAILS [ Per Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, Dec. 1. Patrick Joseph Griffin, a hotel proprietor, claimed in the Supreme Court to-day, before th c Chief Justice, £513 15s from the Australian Provincial Assurance Association Ltd. and Thomas Wellington Rapley, of Sydney, in respect of premiums paid on a policy of insurance of life on September 23, 1925, and April 1, 1926. Rapley was then general manager of thc A.P.A. for New Zealand. Griffin said that although the payment in March 1926 was on the 31st of the month, it was arranged with the insurance company that the payment be made on April 1 in view of his financial year ending on March 31. He said he posted his third premium on April 2, 1927, in a pillar-box. The cheque had been received by the company on April 4, a Sunday intervening. Griffin was informed that his premium was late and he consented to being examined again for a declaration of health on that account. There after he was offered a loaded policy which he refused, and the company returned his cheque. Griffin claimed that there had been an understanding between Rapley and himself which waived the conditions of the policy, that the payment on April 2 was a payment in time, and that thc company had no right to cancel his policy and. offer him a loaded, one in lieu of it.

The company’s defence was that the premium was not paid in time and was therefore null and void. Plaintiff was held by the Chief Justice not to have established his case, and His Honour gave judgment for defendants.