Beard v. American Agency Life Insurance

MURPHY, Chief Judge.

Maryland Code (1957, 1986 Repl.Vol.) Art. 48A, § 366(a) requires that a person, who procures an insurance contract upon the life of another, have an “insurable interest” in the insured individual. This case focuses upon whether a tenant farmer, who leased his landlord’s farm, and who possessed an oral option to purchase the farm, had an insurable interest in the life of the landlord under § 366(a).

I

In the spring of 1981, L. Neal Beard began farming approximately 150 acres of land in Washington County, which was owned by David E. Bachtell. In February 1982 Beard and…