Szymanski v. Boston Mutual Life Insurance

At issue is the defendant insurer’s promotional materials and representations made by its insurance agent indicating that a so-called “vanishing-premiums” life insurance policy sold to the plaintiff would accumulate sufficient value in nine years to cover the cost of the annual premiums thereafter.1 A judge of the Superior Court allowed the defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the basis of statutes of limitations. We reverse.

Background. In 1986, the plaintiff, James Szymanski,2 then a foreman with an associate’s degree in manufacturing, owned a fully paid $5,000 life insurance policy…