Digest: Empire Life Insurance Co. v Agricultural Credit Corp. of Saskatchewan, 2018 SKQB 90

• Date: March 16, 2018

Reported as: 2018 SKQB 90

Docket Number: QBG 1576/17 QBG 1318/17 JCS , QB17474

Court: Court of Queen's Bench

Date: 2018-03-16

Judges:

• Scherman

Subjects:

• Civil Procedure � Queen�s Bench Rules, Rule 6-75

Digest: The applicant insurance company sought an order for interpleader pursuant to Queen�s Bench rule 6-75 regarding premium surpluses it held in the amount of $3,550,800 that were generated between 1990, when it issued a group life insurance policy to the respondent, Agricultural Credit Corporation (Ag Credit), and 2015, when Ag Credit terminated the policy. The applicant requested that the monies be paid into court and that directions be provided as to how the determination of ownership would be decided. Ag Credit took the position that the funds paid as premiums were Crown funds and thus any surpluses were the property of the Crown and properly payable to Ag Credit as its agent. It argued that the interpleader order was unnecessary. The purpose of the group life insurance was to ensure that outstanding loans made by Ag Credit to borrowers were paid in the event of the borrowers� deaths. Individual borrowers paid the premiums applicable to them by paying those amounts to Ag Credit, who remitted the payments to the applicant. There was no clear direction...