Bank of Commerce v. New York Life Insurance

54 S.E. 643, 125 Ga. 552, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 220
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 18, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 54 S.E. 643 (Bank of Commerce v. New York Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank of Commerce v. New York Life Insurance, 54 S.E. 643, 125 Ga. 552, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 220 (Ga. 1906).

Opinion

Lumpkin, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) The" policy of insurance provides that one month’s grace shall be allowed for the pajunent of premiums after the date of their maturity. When the second annual premium became due, the insured, being unable to pay the full amount, paid $21 in cash, and gave his note for the balancé, due five months after date. c The note provided, “Without grace, five months .after date, I promise to pajq” etc., and further provided, that “all benefits whatever, which full payment in cash of said premium would have secured, shall become immediately void and be forfeited to the New York Life Insurance Company, if this note is not paid at maturity, except as otherwise provided in the policy itself.” The note was not paid when due, but a tender of -the amount was made within thirty days after the maturity of the note. It is the contention of the plaintiff that the stipulation for one month’s grace in the payment of premiums, contained in the pqlicy, applied to the payment of this note. We think this contention is clearly contrary to the intent of the policy and the note. The insured was not only given his one month’s grace, but really an extension of five months for a portion of his premium, and there was no stipulation that he should be entitled to any further extension of time. The note specifically provides that it shall be paid on the date of maturity, without grace, and the clause “except as otherwise provided in the policy'itself” does not relieve it of this condition. The policy and the note should be construed together; and it would be a violent construction which would hold that when the company, in lieu of the one month’s grace, accepted the note without other consideration and extended the grace to five months, it further bound itself to an additional month’s grace, in plain contradiction to the very terms of the note itself.

The policy of insurance also contained the following stipulation: “This policy is automatically non-forfeitable from date of issue, as follows: First. — If any premium is not duty j>aid, and if there is no indebtedness to the company, this policy will be endorsed for the amount of paid-úp insurance specified in the table on the second page hereof, on written request therefor within six months from the date to which premiums were duty paid. If no such request is made, the insurance will automatically continue from said date [555]*555for $2,000 for the term specified in' said table and no longer.” . That portion of the table referred to in the above applicable to the facts of this case is as follows: “Table of cash loans and of paid-np or continued insurance. (The cash loans and paid-up insurance stated below apply to a policy of $1,000; but this policy is for $2,000, and the cash loan or paid-up insurance available in any year will be two times the amount stated in the table below for that year. . . After expiration of two years — Cash loans $44; Paid-up insurance $48; $2,000 insurance continued for one year and 6 months.” The policy had no cash loan or paid-up insurance value until after the expiration of two years. After the expiration of one year it had a continued insurance period of two months. The premium due August 24, 1901, if paid, would have caused the policy to continue in force two years; and by the nonforfeitable clause above set out, the policy would have had a further life of one year and six months without payment by the insured of any further premiums, thus making the policy of full force until February 24, 1904. As the insured died before this date, the company would -then have been liable upon the policy. It is one contention of the plaintiff that the acceptance by the defendant company of $21 in cash, and a note due in five months for the balance of the second year’s premium, constituted a payment of this premium, ajjxl thus extended the policy until February 24, 1904. We do not think that this was such a payment as would automatically continue the policy. The first non-forfeitable clause begins with the provision, “If there is no indebtedness to the company;” and the plaintiff does not comply with that condition. The acceptance of a note is not generally payment, unless the note itself is paid at maturity. Civil Code, §3720. And the terms of this note evidently did not contemplate that it should be treated in all respects as a cash payment. The fact that $21 was paid in cash upon the premium did not operate to extend the policy, .there being in the contract nothing declaring that a payment of a part of an annual premium should give a continuation period proportioned to the fraction of the premium paid.- It is expressly provided in the note itself that unless paid when due, “all claims to further insurance, and all benefits whatever, which full payment in cash of said premium would have secured, shall become immediately void and be forfeited . . , except as otherwise provided in the policy itself.” [556]*556The' validity of this contract can not be successfully questioned. It did not undertake to destroy any existing right of the beneficiary under the policy. The extension of time was a favor, not a right, and the allowance of additional time for payment of a premium beyond its maturity did not operate to confer still further rights in spite of the terms of the extension. It is contended by plaintiff that the last clause in the note, — “except as otherwise provided in the policy itself,” refers to the non-forfeitable provisions and automatic continuation of the policy. But the automatic extension which the insured was entitled to claim under the clause of the policy quoted was an extension based on the annual premiums actually paid in full. Onty one had been paid. This entitled him to an extension of two months, which had expired before his death.

The policy also contains a provision, under the statement that it is automatically non-forfeitable, as follows: “If any premium or interest is not duly paid, and if there is an indebtedness to the company, this policy will be endorsed for such amount of paid-up insurance as any excess of the reserve held by the company over such indebtedness will purchase according to the company’s present published table of single premiums, on written request therefor within six months from the date to which premiums were duly paid. If no such request for paid-up insurance is made, the net amount that would have been payable as a death-claim on the date to which premiiims were duly paid will automatically continue as term insurance from such date, for such time as said excess of the' reserve will purchase according to the company’s present published table of single premiums for term insurance, and no longer.” It does not appear that any request for paid-up insurance was made under this provision, or that there was such an excess of the reserve as would purchase, according to the company’s table of single premiums for term insurance, an extension of a net amount which would have been payable as a death claim on the date to which the premiums were duly paid, for a time extending beyond the death of the insured. On the subject of such notes and policies, see Holly v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 105 N. Y. 437; Ressler v. Fidelity Mut. Life Ins. Co., 110 Tenn. 411, 75 S. W. 735; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Warren, 75 S. W. 234; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Meinken’s admr., 80 S. W. 175; Manhattan Life Ins. Co. v. Pentecost, 49 S. W. 425; Sharpe v. New York Life Ins. Co., 98 N. W. 66.

[557]*557It was further contended that the acceptance by the general agent of the defendant of the amount due upon the note, after its maturity, was a waiver of the forfeiture of the policy.

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

Related

Maddox v. Life & Casualty Insurance
53 S.E.2d 235 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1949)
Gulf Life Insurance Company v. Causey
14 S.E.2d 138 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1941)
John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance v. Yates
185 S.E. 268 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1936)
Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Smith
172 S.E. 654 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1934)
Ballard v. Beneficial Life Ins. Co.
21 P.2d 847 (Utah Supreme Court, 1933)
Burch v. Provident Life & Accident Insurance
161 S.E. 313 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1931)
Inter-Southern Life Insurance Co. v. Omer
38 S.W.2d 931 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1931)
Pittman v. Missouri State Life Insurance
12 Tenn. App. 228 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1930)
Rogers v. Columbian National Life Insurance
213 N.W. 757 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1927)
Gainous v. Georgia Casualty Co.
130 S.E. 540 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1925)
Penn Mutual Life Insurance v. Blount
127 S.E. 892 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1925)
Kansas City Life Ins. Co. v. Harper
1923 OK 123 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)
Southland Life Ins. v. Hopkins
244 S.W. 989 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1922)
Robnett v. Cotton States Life Insurance
230 S.W. 257 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1921)
Southland Life Ins. Co. v. Hopkins
219 S.W. 254 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1920)
Pan Americam Life Ins. Co. v. Carter
80 So. 75 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1918)
State Life Insurance v. Tyler
93 S.E. 415 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1917)
Selman v. Manhattan Life Insurance
93 S.E. 60 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1917)
Kansas City Life Ins. Co. v. Leedy
1917 OK 88 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1917)
Dunn v. Columbian National Life Insurance
89 S.E. 432 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 S.E. 643, 125 Ga. 552, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-of-commerce-v-new-york-life-insurance-ga-1906.