CANADA’S MANULIFE HIT WITH CLASS-ACTION SUIT
ASSOCIATED PRESS, 21 October 1996
A class-action suit has been launched against Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. over its ”vanishing premium” policies. A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been filed in Ontario Court General Division on behalf of a group of Manulife’s Ontario policyholders. Lawyer Charles Wright said the judge will be asked to establish the suit as a class action, where the claims and rights of many people with common interests are decided in a single-court proceeding. Toronto-based Manulife is already facing class actions in the United States pertaining to vanishing premium policies.
”There are thousands of people behind this suit,” Mr. Wright said. The suit bears the name of Bernard McKrow, 75, of Windsor, Ontario, who alleges he bought a $100,000 vanishing premium policy in 1986 after being told he would only have to make seven premium payments because money earned on the relatively high premiums would cover payments in the future.
