INSURANCE: Out of Bounds

In his syndicated cafe-society column, orchidaceous Lucius Beebe last week digressed to announce an exciting discovery: that holders of marine-insurance policies on personal property lost away from home can collect for lost golf balls. Mr. Beebe further implied that the insurance people themselves had just discovered the fact and that they were scared to death.

All of this was somewhat misleading, for U. S. insurance companies make a nice distinction between claims for golf balls lost in trains, streetcars or barrooms (legitimate) and claims for balls knocked hopelessly out of bounds or into water hazards (“unfair”). They get 50 to 100 claims a year for balls lost in ordinary play, and they pay these “unfair” claims as well as fair claims unless they suspect fraud. Some companies, however, get so mad about “unfair” claims that they will not renew a claimant’s policy.