American Life & Accident Ass'n v. Walton

202 S.W. 20, 133 Ark. 348, 1918 Ark. LEXIS 202
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 11, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 202 S.W. 20 (American Life & Accident Ass'n v. Walton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Life & Accident Ass'n v. Walton, 202 S.W. 20, 133 Ark. 348, 1918 Ark. LEXIS 202 (Ark. 1918).

Opinion

SMITH, J.

The American Life & Accident Insurance Company, hereinafter referred to as the company, issued an accident indemnity policy on September 15th, 1915, to E. N. Walton, hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff. On October 10th, 1915, plaintiff was returning from a boat landing on the Mississippi River to his home in Arkansas City, and., in order to cross a railroad track, which, ran parallel to the levee upon which plaintiff was walking at the time, he jumped from the levee on to a stationary flat car loaded with logs, a distance of four or five feet, hut on account of the wet and slippery condition of the logs, plaintiff slipped and fell to the ground, a distance of twelve feet. As a result of his fall plaintiff sustained very serious injuries, the physical, visible evidence of which consisted of a sprained wrist and a swelling in the abdomen. There was immediate pain in the stomach, accompanied by nausea. Immediately following his accident plaintiff worked a few hours, at night, but was unable to perform a regular day’s work. Plaintiff was an electrician, and continued to do some work at night for a week or ten days, but was forced to quit work on account of the increasing pain in his stomach, since which time he was unable to do any regular work until the 21st of February, 1916, when, as a result of the accident aforesaid, he was operated on for what is known as mobile caceum, this being an operation to attach to the abdomen the lower bowel, which had become loosened from its regular place by reason of the accident. The operation was apparently successful, although the plaintiff was left in a weakened and run down condition, and he testified that even up to the time of the trial he had not been restored to his normal condition.

Plaintiff was taken to the hospital on January 3rd, 1916, where he remained until the 24th of March, and after being taken home he was confined to his bed for six days and to his home fourteen days.

The company denied any liability under the policy, - and this suit was brought to recover, upon the theory that a total disability had been sustained, during the time for which a recovery was asked and judgment fox penalty and attorney’s fees w.as also prayed.

The application for the policy contained the .statement that the plaintiff was in sound and healthy condition, and that he had never been ruptured; when, according to his own .admission on the witness stand, he had had dhills with the accompanying fever, and he had been ruptured when a child, and had been operated on for it in 1903, and in 1906 he had had performed a preventive operation for rupture on the opposite side. These operations were completely successful. Plaintiff also testified that in 1911 he had been thrown from a horse, from which he sustained an acute attack of indigestion, and prior to that time he had been struck on the head by a pole as he was getting off a street car, for which accident he was treated by a physician, and in 1911 he had an X-ray examination made of his head. It was also shown that as a boy he had broken his wrist.

However, prior to the taking out of the policy sued on, plaintiff had recovered from these mishaps, and none of them apparently contributed in any manner to the trouble which sent him to the hospital. Plaintiff’s trouble was first diagnosed as appendicitis, and he was operated on for that disease on January 4th, 1916; but this operation did not relieve the pain, and a second operation for mobile caceum was performed oil February 21st. This operation, as stated, gave comparative relief, and started plaintiff on the road to recovery. The surgeon testified that the mobile caceum was congenital, and that the plaintiff did not know of its existence and that its existence might never have been made known but for sudh an accident as plaintiff sustained, although its presence made the plaintiff peculiarly susceptible to injury from such an accident.

The company now denies liability under the policy upon the ground that the statements set out above in the application were false and that in the application these answers were warranted to be complete and true and material and binding on him, whether written by himself or by the agent of the company.

(1) These answers were not copied into the policy, nor was the application, or a copy thereof, attached thereto. Neither did the policy in express terms make the application a part of the contract. Ordinarily, the policy constitutes the contract, and, while the application may be made a part of the contract, such is not the case unless’the policy makes it so. When the application is not made a part of the contract, the statements there contained, even though they are there designated as warranties, are treated as mere representations made to induce the issuance of a contract of insurance. The cases on the subject state the rule to be that statements contained in the application will not be construed to be warranties if such statements may be reasonably construed to be mere representations. We think an application which is not expressly made a part of the contract of insurance is open to that construction. A leading case on the subject is that of Spence v. Central Accident Ins. Co., 236 Ill. 444. In that case it was said:

“A warranty being part of the contract itself as contra-distinguished from a representation, which is a mere inducement to the contract, must necessarily appear in the contract itself. In Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co. v. Robertson, 59 Ill. 123, this court, on page 126, said: ‘A warranty is in the nature of a condition precedent. It must appear on the face of the policy, or if on another part of it or on a paper physically attached, it must appear that the statements were intended to form a part of the policy, or if on another paper, they must be so.ref erred to in the policy as clearly to indicate that the parties intended them to form a part of it. A warranty can not be created nor extended by construction’ — citing Reynolds on Life Insurance, 85 et seq.; Campbell v. New England Ins. Co., 98 Mass, 381; Burritt v. Saratoga Ins. Co., 5 Hill 188; Jefferson Ins. Co. v. Cotheal, 7 Wend. 72.
“Defendant in error contends that the application in this case is a part of the policy. The only language in the policy that makes any reference to the application is found in the first sentence of the policy, where it is recited: ‘In consideration of the warranties and agreements in the application for this policy and of $25 does hereby insure Robert Spence, of Chicago, State of Illinois, by occupation a collector publishing house,’ etc. It will be observed that the reference here to the application does not expresssly make it a part of the policy; nor does such, effect necessarily follow by á fair construction of the language, even if a warranty could thus be imported into the contract. The doctrine of warranty, in the law of insurance, is one of great rigor and frequently operates very harshly upon the assured, and courts will never construe a ’statement as a warranty unless the language of the policy is so clear as to preclude any other construction. As was said by Justice Gray in McClain v. Providence Savings Life Assur. Soc., 110 Fed. Rep.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Unionaid Life Insurance v. Bank of Lincoln
83 S.W.2d 545 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1935)
Pacific Mutual Life Insurance v. Dupins
66 S.W.2d 284 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1933)
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Long
53 S.W.2d 433 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1932)
Travelers' Protective Assoc. of America v. Stephens
49 S.W.2d 364 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1932)
Mid-Continent Life Ins. Co. v. House
1932 OK 260 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1932)
Mutual Benefit Health & Accident Ass'n v. Bird
47 S.W.2d 812 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1932)
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Maxwell
237 S.W. 708 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1922)
Inter-Southern Life Insurance v. Ransom
232 S.W. 754 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1921)
Kansas City Life Insurance v. Ridout
228 S.W. 55 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1921)
Southern Surety Co. v. Barham
202 S.W. 231 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
202 S.W. 20, 133 Ark. 348, 1918 Ark. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-life-accident-assn-v-walton-ark-1918.