1194 LEGAL CASES DECIDED ON LIFE ASSURANCES. 
With regard to the statements of the parties, it is to be borne in 
mind that, for the purposes of the policy, the life is the agent of the 
party effecting the assurance ; so that whatever is done or said by the 
party whose life is assured will be binding on the one effecting the assur- 
ance. No fact of importance should be concealed from the office ; much 
less should any misrepresentation be made: in either case the policy 
would be avoided ; and it must be always a matter of anxiety and doubt, 
if any fact be concealed, whether a jury will pronounce it material or not. 
It is obvious that a man cannot be said to conceal that which he does not 
know ; but it is equally clear that a man may make an untrue state- 
ment from ignorance merely, though it will not be the less untrue be- 
cause the party making it did not know it to be so. 
In cases where parties assure their own lives the strictest adherence 
to the truth is absolutely necessary : nor ought anything material to be 
concealed ; for if a man is compelled to suffer loss from the conceal- 
ment or misrepresentation of his agent, it is certain he ought to suffer 
where the statements made are his own. 
The object of instituting offices to grant assurances on lives was of 
the most praiseworthy and benevolent kind. These institutions were, 
however, grossly abused : men speculated upon others’ lives in which 
they had not the slightest interest, and effected assurances upon all 
sorts of events. To remedy such an evil the wholesome statute of 
14 Geo. III. was passed, and the result is, that now a man cannot make 
a wager with an assurance office on the duration of life, but must have 
a bond fide pecuniary interest in the life assured. It was a mistake to 
suppose that a party seeking to assure thereby undertook a risk; the 
risk was undertaken before, and the effect of the policy was to guard 
against that risk, 
Complaints have been made, and sometimes perhaps justly, that 
assurance offices too often contest the validity of their policies. It may 
be so; but when we look back to the cases here thrown together, and 
notice the vast number of frauds effected and attempted against the 
offices, we do not wonder at the extent of litigation on life assurances. 
The wonder is, there are not more litigated cases. 
To quote Serjeant Marshall: ¢ Considering,” says the learned gen- 
tleman, ‘the great multiplicity of assurances which have of late years 
been made upon lives, the number of litigated cases which has arisen 
upon them is extremely small. One principal reason is, that the hap- 
pening of the event assured against is always a fact of easy proof, which 
can scarcely ever afford any subject of dispute. Another is the great 
difficulty of practising any fraud on such assurances. But to no cause 
is this fortunate circumstance more to be ascribed than to the honour, 
integrity, and liberality of the several Companies engaged in that 
branch of assurance.’