Business: Mutual's Mess

Month ago California's Insurance Commissioner Samuel L. Carpenter Jr. and officials of Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. of California went into the Los Angeles court of Superior Judge Douglas L. Edmonds. In a 45-minute proceeding the company was, at the request of Commissioner Carpenter, declared insolvent and its assets placed in his care until reorganization could be worked out. In the same breath, a new company called Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. (i.e., without the "of California") was formed to take over its predecessor's business under a management headed by old Pacific Mutual's...