Should the contract of an insurance be effected for the account of another party, or the subject matter change hands in whole or in part, either through a sale, loan, mortgage, endorsement of bill of lading, or by any other means-the insured has, of course, the right of transferring to the party actually interested, or superseding him in this interest, all his claims under the policy.
Such a right is clearly shown by the so-called assignment clause, which follows the name of the assured in the beginning of the policy, and usually runs thus: As well in his (the insured party’s) own name, as for and in the name and names of all and every other person or persons to whom the subject matter of this policy doth, may, or shall appertain in part, or in all, doth make assurance, and cause himself and them, and every of them, to be insured ….
Form of the Assignment’.-
The transfer of an insurance policy is effected by dated assignment, indorsed either on the margin or on the back of the document.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The legal form of indorsement runs as follows:
I (name of the insured) do hereby assign unto (name of the assignee), his executors, administrators, and assigns, the within policy of assurance on the (description of the ship, freight, or goods, as the case may be).
The indorsement must, of course, be signed by the indorser, and should also be signed or initialled by the underwriters, as an acknowledgment of the information received.
In the practice of trade there is not, however, a fixed rule for the purpose.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It often occurs, for instance, that the seller of goods covered by insurance is not acquainted with the buyer’s name, at the time the sale is effected through a broker on a foreign market; the name of the assignee is then left in blank in the indorsement, or the word bearer is inserted in its place.
Nor is the regular form of indorsement always used, as most merely append their name to the policy, and the document is accepted as regularly indorsed in blank; even the simple delivery of the policy, with the intention of assigning it, is deemed by the less careful a sufficient form of transfer.
In this, as in many other transactions, the written law is very often superseded by the custom of the trade. In case of loss or damage, the holder of the policy, whether the original insured, or any indorsee, or simply the bearer thereof, is bound, of course, to prove his interest in the subject matter of the insurance before he can get any indemnity from the underwriter within the limits of the policy.