Tontine. A system of insurance which under various forms is based upon the idea of a loan or investment of property for the benefit of a number of persons, the income at first being divided among all and the shares of members who die passing not to their own legal representatives but to increase the interest of the surviving mem- ber, until, at last, after the number of members has gradually diminished by suc- cessive deaths, the last survivor takes the whole income, or, if such be the terms agreed upon, the whole principal. The system took its name from Lorenzo Tonti, an Italian of the seventeenth century, who first conceived the idea and put it in prac- tice. Merlin, Repert.; Dalloz, Dict.; 5 Watts 351. A policy of this character was the subject of litigation in the Massachusetts Supreme Court in a case in which the system is illustrated. It was to continue ten years if the insured should so long live, but in case of his death before that time, the dividends would not inure to the benefit of his estate, but be held by the company for the benefit of other policy holders and forfeited by him. The estate of the deceased received only the amount of the policy, which, however, would be forfeited for non-payment of premiums during the tontine term; policies of this character are kept in classes of ten, fifteen, or twenty years, called respectively the tontine periods, and accounts are kept with the funds of each class to ascertain the amount due upon each policy at the expiration of its tontine term, at which time the surplus profits are apportioned equitably among such policies as complete the term; 145 Mass. 56. Under such an insurance the failure of the company to place all divi- dends accruing upon a policy in a reserve fund in accordance with the terms of the policy did not excuse the non-performance of his contract by the insured, and a suit by such policy holder for an accounting by the company cannot be maintained on the ground of the failure to keep and invest the fund accruing from the dividends sepa- rately; 101 N. Y. 328. No trust relation exists between the company and the insured but it is simply one of contract measured by the terms of the policy; 50 N. Y. 610; 78 id. 114; 98 id. 627. The situation of the parties is that of debtor and creditor merely, the amount of the debt being determined by the equitable apportionment to be made by the corporation through its officers; 101 Ν. Υ. 421; 145 Mass. 56. The apportion- ment of the fund is not absolutely con- clusive upon the policy holders. It is prima facie right, but may be shown to be based on erroneous principles; id. The rights under such a policy being absolutely vested, the possession by another of the evidence of their rights cannot change or affect them; 108 U. S. 498. Workmen's Industrial Insurance; State Insurance; Compulsory In- surance; Workmen's Compensation: These terms mean those statutory provisions which cover the relation of master and servant and industrial accidents suffered by employees. The several systems embrace accidents, non-fatal or fatal to employees, sickness, unemployment, old age, and invalidity. Except where such enactments provide for insurance which is non-compul- sory, either expressed or implied, they relate rather to economic or sociologic conditions than to the contract of insurance or to the principles governing that contract, or, at the most, they create new remedies or are but an evolution of the employer's liability principle. These enactments, in their general nature are designated as either com- pulsory or elective or voluntary insurance or purely compensation laws, with an ele- ment that might be construed as coercive or in the nature of a penalty. 1 Joyce, Insur- ance, 2nd ed., 88 et seq.; 147 Wis. 327.