IMPORTANT ACTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2720, 17 December 1889, Page 2

IMPORTANT ACTION.

TONTINE INSURANCE. (l)Y TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION). Wellington, Mouday. A CIVIL action of considerable public importance was heard in the Magistrate Court to-day, before Mr Robinson, K.M. The plaintiff, John Bertie, grocer, sought to recover from the Equitable Life Assurance Company, of United States the sum of £100 for alleged false and fraudulent representation. Plaintiff alleged he was induced to take out a tontine policy for £500 in defendant's office, some time in September, 188(5, on the representation of the agent, that the amount would bs payable at the end of 20 years, whereas ho finds it is not payable till after his death. The evidence of plaintitf went to show that when he took out a policy, he asked the agent whether he could draw the £500 and profits at the end of the term, and the latter distinctly replied in the affirmative, adding, if he (Bertie) did not wish to do that he could have a paid-up policy for a larger amount. The agent who insured Bertie said in his evidence that when the policy was taken out he (the agent) knew very little about the vaiious tables or endowment policies under the society, and had but a vague idoa of the tontine system, Tlie resident agent of the company stated that when Bertie called on hiin he told him that according to his estimate the policy at the end of the tontine period would bo worth about £680. The witness flatly denied that lie ever told Bertie that at the end of twenty years he could draw the amount of the policy and profits. Several law points were re.-erved for argument to-morrow, when judgment will probably be eiven.