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Hartford Life Ins. Co. v. Barber, 245 U.S. 146 (1917)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Hartford Life Ins. Co. v. Barber, 245 U.S. 146 (1917)
Hartford Life Insurance Company v. Barber Nos. 252 , 253 Argued November 5, 6, 1917 Decided November 19, 1917 245 U.S. 146
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT
OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Syllabus
In a suit against a life insurance company by its certificate holders, it was adjudged by a court of the the company’s domicile and in which were its funds that, subject to a limitation as to amount, the company might keep up as theretofore a mortuary fund which it had been its custom to replenish and maintain through assessments made by the executive officers under supervision and control of the board of directors. In a later action in a court of another state, such an assessment was held void, in spite of the judgment, upon the grounds, first, that the assessment exceeded the power of the company and the limit fixed by the judgment, and, second, that it was not made by the board of directors, as required by the company’s charter. Held, that the second ground of the decision, even if it did not itself deny full faith and credit to the judgment and the charter, was at most a mere makeweight, which could not be treated as an independent local basis of decision, and that this Court was therefore at liberty to review and reverse the decision upon the first ground, as one denying full faith and credit to the judgment with respect to the amount of the assessment.
The Connecticut judgment considered in Hartford Life Insurance Co. v. Ibs, 237 U.S. 662, providing that any excess in the mortuary fund above the average amount of the four preceding quarterly assessments, in the Men’s Division of the Insurance Company’s Safety Fund Department, must be distributed to certificate holders by crediting such excess on account of the next succeeding assessment, authorized the company, in assessing for a given quarter, to levy an amount sufficient not only to reimburse the fund for losses accrued at the time of levy, but also sufficient, when added to the balance on hand, to maintain the fund up to the average amount of the last four quarterly assessments, for the purpose of meeting future losses promptly, as they occurred. In holding that an assessment was void because it exceeded the difference between such average amount and the amount remaining in the fund after deducting death losses up to the time of levy only, the Supreme Court of Missouri failed to accord the judgment full faith and credit.
269 Mo. 21 reversed.
The cases are stated in the opinion.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Hartford Life Ins. Co. v. Barber, 245 U.S. 146 (1917) in 245 U.S. 146 245 U.S. 147–245 U.S. 148. Original Sources, accessed November 24, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8BGA88BZ3UTGV5J.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Hartford Life Ins. Co. v. Barber, 245 U.S. 146 (1917), in 245 U.S. 146, pp. 245 U.S. 147–245 U.S. 148. Original Sources. 24 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8BGA88BZ3UTGV5J.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Hartford Life Ins. Co. v. Barber, 245 U.S. 146 (1917). cited in 1917, 245 U.S. 146, pp.245 U.S. 147–245 U.S. 148. Original Sources, retrieved 24 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8BGA88BZ3UTGV5J.
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