State v. Matthews
State v. Matthews
Opinion of the Court
The statute under which the securities were deposited with the superintendent of insurance provides: “The securities deposited with the insurance department pursuant to this section shall be held by the superintendent in trust for the benefit and protection of and as security for the policy holders of such corporation, their legal representatives and beneficiaries.”
There is no provision in this statute for turning the securities over to an assignee or receiver in case of insolvency. On the contrary the securities are required to be held by the superintendent in trust for the benefit and protection of, and as security for, the policy holders. This evidently means that the policy holders are to be protected and secured by the superintendent himself, and not through an assignee or receiver. The duty of the superintendent to secure and protect the
The assignee stands in the shoes of the company, the assignor, and has the powers only of the assignor as to the collection of outstanding funds. And it is perfectly clear that the assignor, the insurance company, could not recover the securities in question from the superintendent of insurance without first showing that all its policies had been taken up, and that it-was no longer liable to any policy holder. So with the assignee, he must first show that the company is no longer liable to any policy holder before he can recover the securities from the superintendent of insurance.' As was said by the court in Falkenbach v. Patterson, 43 Ohio St., 359, on page 369: “The
We think it clear that the assignee is not entitled to the securities held by the superintendent of insurance, upon the facts disclosed in the petition, and the demurrer to the petition will therefore be sustained and the writ refused.
'Writ refused.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.