Silbert v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States

This is a bill in equity to compel the defendant assurance society to recognize a change of beneficiary requested by the plaintiff in a policy of accident and health insurance taken out by the plaintiff in 1922 in that defendant.

The plaintiff is the insured named in the policy. His estate was originally named as beneficiary with respect to the death benefits. The policy provides that consent of the beneficiary shall not be requisite to a surrender or assignment of the policy or to a change of beneficiary or to any other changes in the policy. In 1931 the plaintiff’s wife was made beneficiary.…