THE ETHICS OF LIFE INSURANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1921, Page 9

THE ETHICS OF LIFE INSURANCE.

THE SMALLFIELD CASE. When a man not excessively wealthy insures himself for £15,000 for no par ticular reason, and undertakes to pay the considerable sum of £416 a year in premiums, insurance companies are justified in taking precautions, says the Dominion in an editorial comment. The proceedings in the Smallfield case suggest that the proper time for caution is before accepting proposals for such large' amounts, and not after the insured person is dead. The financial circumstances of the late Mr. Smallfield at the time of his death were apparently regarded, in view of the heavy life insurance, as suggesting a possible motive for suicide, and it seems to have been mainly on this ground that the order was made by the Attorney-General for the first exhumation of the body. At the same time the evidence made it plain that if the death was not due to heart seizure while bathing—the Coroner’s finding at both inquests—it would only have been a suicide long premeditated, planned with the utmost ingenuity, and executed with an unflinching determination that was almost incredible. At the second inquest counsel challenged kts legality until the first was squashed,

Ad also expressed the opinion that the exhumation of the body was illegal. The Coroner admitted doubts as to his pow-

ers in the. matter. The body of this unfortunate man has twice been taken from its grave, a deliberate intention to defraud has been imputed to him, and after Wliat has been mainly an

exploring investigation the whole affair ends as it began. Opinions will differ as to how fi.r the insuran.ee companies and the Government were justified in acting on mere suspicion. Most people will incline to the view that such proceedings as at Hamilton should not have been begun unless the evidence in hand was so overwhelming as to make the result a foregone conclusion, zl feature of the case—which may, however, have been due to the zeal only of an agent—was that just before his death Mr. Smallfield was being canvassed to take up another policy for £5OOO.