Ryan v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America

Opinion by

Cunningham, J.,

The action below was upon a policy of industrial life insurance issued by the appellant company on March 16, 1925, on the life of John Anderson. The appellee is the niece of the insured and the beneficiary named in the policy. The statement of claim averred that the insured disappeared sometime in May, 1925, while working on the Conowingo Dam, and had not been heard from since; that as more than eleven years had elapsed since his disappearance a legal presumption of his death had arisen.

The case was tried before a judge of the court below, sitting without a jury, who…