Cause Lists.

THE EDITOR'S LETTER BOX.

"An Articled Clerk" is informed that the work regarding which he inquires, contains the alterations in the Law of Real Property effected by the statute 3 & 4 W. 4.

We will endeavour to find room for the judgment on Salomon's case. We are obliged to our correspondent.

In consequence of further suggestions, we have arranged for the publication of the entire

Lists of Causes in all the Courts, thus shewing the actual state of business in all the Courts; and as this will occur only at the commencement of each term, when we have but few, if any, new reports, we hope to find room for the lists without exceeding our usual space, or increasing the expense of the work.

A friendly correspondent suggests, tha' though the Legal Observer is unstamped, ye any particular number may be transmitted b post as a single letter, by folding it, uncu without the cover, and marking it "single."

RULES FOR EFFECTING LIFE
INSURANCES.

WE presume that to our readers any general encomiums on life insurance must be entirely useless. Professional men, being more or less dependent on income, are especially a class for whom insurance societies are desirable; and how extensively lawyers avail themselves of the advantages they offer, the records of many of the offices in London would show. Besides, we frequently have to advise others in this matter. We think, therefore, it may not be useless

to throw out for their consideration some rules for selecting an office which may be adopted either on entering into a new engagement of this sort, or on increasing an old one; for after some experience of the great benefits they confer on the profession, we are inclined to say

ables, to bolster up the institution which they direct."

Next we shall take what is said as to what are called the cheap offices. "When choice of an office, it is very natural that a person is making up his mind as to the his election should be likely to fall on that which offers the most reasonable termsthat is to say, where the amount of premium to be paid for a hundred pounds is less than in others; but this difference in the premium is not the only thing to be regarded. The difference of a few shillings and participating establishment, is, we reper cent. more, especially in a proprietary peat, of little importance, provided they keep within the limits of those tables which have been constructed on the law of mortality, as deduced from the most approved statistical information, collected and registered from details of numerous large and distinct masses of the population of this and other countries."

"Let those insure who ne'er insured before, And those who have insured, insure the more." Next as to the question of an office with The hints we shall give have been sug-profits and without profits. "The great gested to us by an article in the October importance of choosing an office which number of the Quarterly Review, which allows a participation of profits, is exemexpresses in the main our own opinions; plified by a report put forth by the Rock,' and we shall therefore advert to some of in which it is stated, that in the case of a the topics touched on by the Reviewer, royal personage lately deceased, whose life evidently a person well informed on this was largely insured for the benefit of his subject. And first, as to selecting an office. family, the directors found by a document "Perhaps the safest rule," he says, "for in their possession, that out of eleven offices making a prudential choice, is to look well granting him policies, all at the same time, at the list of directors. If these are men and at a rate of premium varying from of known integrity, of aptitude for business, 41. 4s. 2d. to 5l. Os. 2d. per cent. (that of moving in some public sphere, and of sub- the Rock being 41. 8s. 2d.), only five made stantial property, one may feel on pretty any return of premium or additional bonus.' safe ground,--such men are not likely to If the office be well selected, we have no lend their names to any visionary under- hesitation in saying that life insurance in taking, nor to require any ostentatious array an office with profits offers the most desiof noble lords, honourables or right honour-rable investment for small annual savings, C

VOL. XIX.-No. 557.

18

Rules for effecting Life Insurances.

independently of the ultimate gain on the sum insured.

The next point to which we would call attention is the interest which the person who insures must have in the life insured. We have already given our attention to the consideration of this question, and our readers will find the law on the subject stated in former volumes.a

offices in London, is and must be transacted through agency, and though each agent may have his peculiar office, yet it is undoubtedly his duty to explain to his private employers, as far as he knows the different terms on which different offices grant assurances."

We shall conclude these few remarks with the list which the Reviewer gives of the various offices now in existence, which he classifies into three septennial periods of existence. It is evident that as a general rule, the longer an office has existed, the greater stability it has; but this is by no means a certain criterion. Thus we find the

By statute 14 G. 2, c. 48, no life insurance shall be valid unless the party insuring has a legitimate intercst in the life of the party insured. A creditor has clearly such an interest in the life of his debtor; but it has been held that a husband or father has not such an interest in the life" Law Life" established in 1823, in extent of his wife or child as to enable him to insure his or her life.

The Reviewer does not state the law on this point, but after alluding to the Stat. of 14 Geo. 3, he says The act of G. 3, is in fact a dead letter. It merely enacts the voidance of the policy. Will the holder, if rejected, prosecute the claim? would he be entitled to a verdict? and what damages could he obtain? The two parties, the assured and the office, are frequently participes criminis, and both interested in keeping up the policy; and what is a third party (who holds the policy) to gain by rendering it void? The only gainer would be the office, from the premiums that may have been paid the act does not say that they shall be refunded, nor does it award any penalty on the offenders."

This is a very important consideration for any person effecting a policy on an insufficient interest.

Another topic which is adverted to, is the usual practice of paying a commission to agents, solicitors, or brokers, who bring assurances to their respective offices. This practice has been condemned by Mr. Babbage and others, but the Reviewer does not "We would ask agree in this censure. (he says) what is a poor man living in the heart of Wales, and wishing to effect an insurance, to do but to apply to his man of business, or the agent of some office, who must take his examination-- send it up to the office-employ a medical man, &c. &c. ? and can it be expected he should do all this without remuneration? We believe that the whole of the country business with the

a See 2 L. O. 330; 4 L. O. 25, 53. As to concealments on effecting policies, see 12 L. 0.89.

b Anderson v. Edie, Park on Insurance, 640. 7th edition.

c Holford v. Kymer, 10 B. & C. 722.

of business almost at the head of the whole, and in the first septennial period, we find at least two, "The Legal and General," 1836, and "The Family Endowment," 1835, of acknowledged importance for business and good management.

First Septennial Period.

Argus, established in
Britannia

British Colonial

Legal and General

Metropolitan
Minerva
Mutual Life

National Endowment

National Loan Fund, &c.
Protector

Standard of England
United Kingdom
Universal
Victoria

1834

1837

1858

Family Endowment

1835

Freemason's and General

1838

Independent.

Westminster and General
York and London.

Fourth Septennial Period,

Licensed Victuallers

Chancery Reform.

1721

We shall next turn, in the prosecution of our inquiries as to the necessary reforms in Chancery, to the taxation of costs by the clerks in court. We have already seen that the Chancery Commissioners of 1825 disapprove of the present mode. (See ante, p. 1. n.)

19

Now when it is recollected that the costs of a chancery suit generally amount to several hundred pounds, and sometimes to several thousands, the magnitude of the rights of the suitors ought not thus to be dealt with. The true amount of costs ought to be as carefully ascertained as the items of an executor's account. This should be done both in justice to the client and the solicitor; the one should pay and the other receive such sum as, under all the circumstances, may be fair and just, neither more nor less.

Whilst treating of the mode of taxing costs, it is proper to consider whether any change should take place in the principle of taxation. Our readers will recollect that this subject, particularly in regard to the charges in conveyancing, was under the consideration of the Real Property Commissioners, and they, in noticing the alteration which the scheme then agitated of a general registry would make in the emoluments of solicitors, observed, "that there is a considerable part of the duty of solicitors requiring much skill and care, and imposing great responsibility, for which they are at present very inadequately remunerated." And the Commissioners added, we think it is for the public good that solicitors should be liberally remunerated for their services. Considering the confidence reposed in them, and the intelligence and skill required from them, it is desirable that they should be men of education and of honourable feelings, and should occupy a respectable station. In our opinion it would be highly inexpedient that the rank which they hold in the country should be lowered." The commissioners, adverting to the diminution of charges on

It is well known that the Masters in Chancery are the officers who are presumed to tax the costs of solicitors, whether between party and party or solicitor and client, and they certify to the court the amount at which the costs are taxed; but practically the business is done by the clerks in court, unless the Master's opinion should be re-abstracts and copies which a general register quired on some point which the solicitors require to be personally submitted to him.

would effect, recommended that "the fees of solicitors for actual services, should be higher than they are at present," adding,

perhaps some mode of regulating them, which now exists only with respect to costs of actions and suits, might be beneficially introduced. This subject, (they said) requires great consideration, and due attention to the suggestions which may be obtained from the leading members of that part of the profession." The unsatisfactory state of the present practice of chancery taxation must sooner or later lead to an alteration;

And how is the taxation in Chancery conducted? We are told the course is this :there are a multitude of bills of costs in various suits, in which ten or twelve clerks in court are engaged for some or other of the parties. Instead of each bill being taxed, item by item, by a proper officer in the presence of the solicitors concerned, who alone are acquainted with the facts, the clerks in court divide the bills amongst them as it suits their convenience, and without sufficiently considering the peculiar circum-and it may be worth the attention, therefore, stances of each case, they follow a general rule which saves much trouble, and then each clerk in court charges his fees for his respective clients, as if he had attended the Master on the taxation of each bill.

of our readers, to consider what the change should be, and whether it should in any and what respect extend to conveyancing ?

It cannot for a moment be supposed that the duty of taxation can be properly per