Atlas Life Insurance Company v. Eastman

1957 OK 245, 320 P.2d 397, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 640
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 15, 1957
Docket34862
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 1957 OK 245 (Atlas Life Insurance Company v. Eastman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atlas Life Insurance Company v. Eastman, 1957 OK 245, 320 P.2d 397, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 640 (Okla. 1957).

Opinion

*400 CARLILE, Justice.

The Atlas Life Insurance Company instituted this action against Inez Eastman to cancel a $1,000 insurance policy with double indemnity clause effective in the event of the accidental death of the insured issued by the company on the life of Arnold Lee Eastman, a minor, in which Inez Eastman, mother of the insured, was beneficiary. Plaintiff alleged in its petition that the policy was issued in consideration of the statements made by the insured in his written policy application, which contained questions concerning when he last consulted a physician, illness and duration, and whether he ever had any disease of the heart or high blood pressure, to which questions he wilfully and falsely answered no; that insured had consulted a physician several times and had known for many years that he was suffering from the ailments ; that Inez Eastman was present when the application was prepared and signed the same as parent, and knew that the said answers in the application were false; that the statements were material to the risk and were relied upon by plaintiff. A return of the premium paid was tendered and plaintiff prayed that the policy be canceled.

The defendant filed an answer and cross-petition wherein she alleged that in December, 1945, Andrew Balch, agent of the plaintiff, requested the defendant to make application for life insurance on her son, Arnold Lee, that the agent filled out the application, but did not ask the defendant any questions in connection with the application except the name of the insured, his height and weight, age of his parents, and if he had any deceased brothers or sisters; that no questions were asked concerning the physical condition or health of the insured; that she did not read the application until after the death of the insured, which occurred in September, 1947; that the insured was not present at the time the application was filled out, and that his name to the application was subcribed by the defendant at the suggestion and insistence of the plaintiff’s agent; that defendant made full disclosure to plaintiff, through its agent, of all questions propounded to her at the time the application was completed; that the death of the insured was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage resulting from a bodily injury effected solely through external, violent and accidental means resulting from a fall. The defendant prayed judgment against plaintiff for $2,000. A jury trial was had, resulting in a verdict and judgment for defendant for $2,000, and the plaintiff appealed.

The parties will be referred to the same as they were in the trial court.

The plaintiff sets up eight assignments of error, 1, 2, 7 and 8 of which are presented and argued under a general statement that the court should have instructed a verdict for plaintiff for the cancellation of the policy; that the verdict and judgment rendered is not supported by the evidence because of material false statements in the application concerning the health of the insured, who was suffering from a heart disease at the time of delivery of the policy, and asserts that the policy may be cancelled by the insurer where it relies upon material false statements in the application and no medical examination is required. Decisions from other states, as well as from this court, are cited by plaintiff as supporting its statement.

One of the decisions relied on by plaintiff is National Aid Life Insurance Co. v. Honea, 201 Okl. 41, 202 P.2d 221, which policy there involved contained a provision that no liability was imposed upon the insurer until delivery of the policy was made while applicant was in good health, and it was there held that the company was not liable because the uncontradicted evidence showed the insured at the time of delivery of the policy was afflicted with a fatal malady which continued uninterruptedly and caused his death. The application for the policy involved in the action now before us contained a provision that the policy should not take effect unless it was delivered to applicant during his good health. The plaintiff relied on the provision and the *401 burden was upon it to establish that the insured was not in good health upon delivery of the policy.

Dr. H of Durant was produced as a witness by plaintiff and testified that he examined the insured professionally in December, 1943, when the insured consulted him for a digestive upset, and the diagnosis he made at that time was a congenital mi-tral stenosis with enlargement of the heart, and that he so advised him and prescribed medicine for him, but not for the heart. The doctor further testified that in August, 1946, he gave the insured a general physical examination for vocational rehabilitation service and found with regard to his heart that it was moderately enlarged, with a pre-systolic murmur; that he did not recall whether he advised the patient with regard to that condition. His report of the examination was mailed to Mr. Reed, who was in charge of the Vocational Rehabilitation Program, which report was put in evidence. The doctor was asked to compare the condition of the insured in 1946 with his condition when he examined him in 1943 and stated it was the same condition. The doctor was then asked:

“Q. Then, in your opinion, a man in that condition he was in in 1943 and in 1946, would you say that he was in good health or not in good health on December 18, 194S, or early in January, 1946, because of the heart condition?
“A. I can’t answer that question accurately, Mr. Paul, because a great many of these people in ordinary every-day-life get along very well. They are not able, as a rule, to do things which require a good deal of exertion, without showing symptoms of it, but as far as general health is concerned, I don’t think I could accurately say that he was or was not in good health at that time.”

Mrs. Eastman, called as a witness by plaintiff, testified in part, that when the insured was three or four months old she took him to a doctor, who said there was something wrong with his heart, but did not say what; that she knew her son had heart trouble when the application for insurance was made; that she did not inform Mr. Balch, the agent, because he asked no questions.

Mr. Reed, Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor, to whom Dr. H had mailed his 1946 report, testified that the program served people whose physical handicap contained a vocational handicap and helped them become adjusted to some kind of a job. Some of the record pertaining to the insured in the hands of the witness indicated that the insured led a normal life except for restricted physical activities; that the insured finished Durant High School in 1946; that he had worked in a shoe shop about two and a half years operating a machine repairing shoes.

Mr. Balch, the agent who wrote the policy, testified that he had never observed anything about the physical appearance of the insured to make him think he was in bad health.

On cross-examination, while she was testifying in her own behalf, Mrs. Eastman said she knew that her son was not in good health at the time the policy was delivered and admitted that he had heart trouble.

Dr. S, called as a witness by the defendant, was asked:

“Q. Doctor, isn’t it a fact that people with cogenital heart ailment can live a long time, bear children and live to be old people?

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1957 OK 245, 320 P.2d 397, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atlas-life-insurance-company-v-eastman-okla-1957.