Contract for payment of sum on event
The Insurance company provided endowment insurance polices. They disagreed with the Commissioners as to whether these were policies of insurance and thus as to how they fell to be stamped. Life insurance was defined in the 1891 Act as ‘insurance upon any life or lives or upon any event or contingency relating to or depending upon any life or lives.’ The instrument that was to be presented for stamping in that case was the policy of insurance and ‘Policy of insurance’ was defined to mean ‘every writing whereby any contract of insurance is made’.
Held: Channell J defined a contract of insurance: ‘It seems to me that for the purpose of determining whether that contract comes within the definition [of life insurance] we must look at it as a whole, and not split it up into two separate parts . . Whereby for some consideration, usually but not necessarily for periodical payments called premiums, you secure for yourself some benefit, usually but not necessarily the payment of a sum of money, upon the happening of some event . . A contract of insurance, then, must be a contract for the payment of a sum of money, or for some corresponding benefit such as the rebuilding of a house or the repairing of a ship, to become due on the happening of an event, which event must have some amount of uncertainty about it, and must be of a character more or less adverse to the interest of the person effecting the insurance.’
Channell J
[1904] 2 KB 658
Stamp Act 1891
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Department of Trade and Industry v St Christopher Motorists Association Ltd 1974
The defendant company provided for the hire of a chauffeur if the insured was disqualified from driving.
Held: Contracts of insurance are not confined to contracts for the payment of money, but may include a contract for some benefit . .
Cited – Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd v The Financial Services Authority CA 29-Nov-2011
Parties appealed against on order for the winding up of the company. The Authority (FSA) had said that the company which supplied warranties to owners of digital receiver boxes were providing regulated insurance services, but that the companies were . .
Cited – Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd and Another v Financial Services Authority SC 13-Feb-2013
The appellants challenged an order for the dissolution of their company under the 2000 Acts. They had provided warranties for assorted consumer electrical goods which amounted to insurance, but said that they were not required to be registered under . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Insurance, Stamp Duty
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.471980
