SANTURAM HARI Vs. TRUST OF INDIA ASSURANCE CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On February 4, 1937, the plaintiff applied to the first defendant company for the issue of an endowment life policy for Rs. 2,000 on the joint lives of himself and his wife. The proposal was accepted, and a policy was issued on April 8, 1937. The plaintiff's wife died on January 14, 1940.

(2.) On August 15, 1937, the plaintiff assigned the policy to defendant No. 2 who forwarded it to the first defendant company for registration, and the assignment was duly registered by the first defendant company on February 8, 1940. On the face of it this assignment is absolute in form,; but it is clear that it was intended only to be by way of security. On March 14, 1941, defendant No. 2 informed the first defendant company that his claim in respect of the policy was restricted to his interest in the policy money as the first mortgagee in respect of the moneys advanced by him on the security of the policy. But, as I shall presently point out, it makes no difference to the position in law whether the assignment by the plaintiff to defendant No. 2 was an absolute assignment or merely an assignment by way of security.

(3.) The plaintiff has filed the suit for the recovery of Rs. 2,000 due under the policy and has made the assignee as a party defendant to the suit, as he declined to join him in instituting the suit. The first defendant company has taken up the contention that the plaintiff has no subsisting interest under or in the policy and that he is not entitled to file the suit. I have decided to dispose of this contention as a preliminary issue.