Mates v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance

The plaintiff, on March 14, 1941, brought this action of contract to recover an .unpaid balance of the cash surrender value of a fifteen year endowment life insurance policy issued on February 24, 1939, upon the payment of a single premium of $10,000. The amount of the policy was $13,956. The defence is an equitable one (G. L. [Ter. Ed.] c. 231, § 31), that the statement in the policy of the amount of cash surrender value applicable to the case was inserted by a mistake which entitled the defendant to be absolutely and unconditionally relieved against the plaintiff’s claim.

When surrendered,…