Brown v. United States Casualty Co.

88 F. 38, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2774
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Tennessee
DecidedMay 5, 1898
DocketNo. 140
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 88 F. 38 (Brown v. United States Casualty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. United States Casualty Co., 88 F. 38, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2774 (circtwdtn 1898).

Opinion

HAMMOND, J.

(after staling the facts as above). The notion that Miller had contracted for an insurance as broad as the original policy, and was not, under the circumstances, bound by the more restricted limitations of the substituted policy, is wholly untenable. There is nothing whatever in the circular letter found in the evidence offering to bind the substituted company to the old policy of the defunct company. The first company was a mutual company, the second was a stock company; and this, of itself, would suggest the necessity of some change of the form of contract, and the necessity for a new policy. There was not a guaranty or an assumption of an old contract, nor [40]*40any offer of such, an arrangement, but only one to issue “free insurance” for the period for which the premium had been paid in the old company, with the evident expectation of continuing the business upon the receipt of the newly-accrued premiums, and thereby taking the policy holder into the new company as one of its policy holders. This was the natural and orderly method growing out of the business scheme. But, no matter how that might be, Miller’s own acceptance on the postal card in its very words authorized the United States Casualty Company to issue to him an accident insurance policy based upon his application to the old company, and not upon the terms and stipulations of the old policy; and then he says, “I agree that upon the issue of such new policy my present policies in the United States Accident Association shall thereafter be void and of no effect.” This shows conclusively that he contemplated the issuance of a new policy, and the well-known principle of law is that when he accepted the policy he accepted all its stipulations as they were contained therein, including the conditions which were made a part of it.

Much stress has been laid upon what I will call the “fine print” argument, so often resorted to in cases like this. There are occasions, undoubtedly, when there is force in this argument, and the courts have sometimes sustained it when the circumstances were such that special notice of the particular condition would be required to charge the policy holder with a knowledge of the fact of its existence. A pertinent illustration is found in the case cited by counsel of Bassell v. Insurance Co., 2 Hughes, 531, Fed. Cas. No. 1,094. There, in the negotiations with the agent of the insurance company, the policy holder had told him that he used kerosene oil for the lighting of his store, but did not keep it in stock. Afterwards a policy was sent to him, in which there was a condition printed that kerosene oil should not be used for lighting the premises, except by special permission; and it was held that under the circumstances the policy holder was not bound by the condition without having his attention specially called to it, for the obvious reason that he had negotiated for a contract which permitted him to use the kerosene oil, as he might reasonably suppose; and the appearance of the condition in fine print on the back of the policy with innumerable other conditions was held not to charge him with notice, or bind him to a change of the contract which he had made. Other cases might be cited to the same effect, but they do not at all proceed upon the theory of eliminating the conditions that are printed in fine print, but depend upon the particular circumstances of the making of the contract which show that the policy holder had never agreed to it. It is unnecessary to consider these cases more particularly, for the reason that the present case is destitute of a single circumstance to invoke that principle. It is well enough to remark, in the first place, that there is no fine print on this policy. The condition involved is conspicuously printed in type as large as that on the face of the policy, and. in such manner as to attract the attention of any one who should give the subject the least attention. The argument by the plaintiff assumes that Miller, being aware of the fact that he had a broad policy covering his life if he should be murdered, naturally supposed that the new policy was as [41]*41broad as the old, and that he was misled into accepting the limitations of the new policy for want of his attention being called to the distinctions between the two; but there is not the least circumstance in this case to justify the assumption that Miller ever knew or recognized any such difference. Even now and here, on the authority of the cases cited pro and con, counsel differ as to whether or not the old policy, properly construed, would cover a life lost by murder. It may be conceded that the better opinion is that it does, yet it is not at all probable that Miller’s attention was called to the conflict about the construction of his original policy, and there is no proof that between him and any agent of the company there was ever any reference made to that subject. Doubtless he took the policy as it was given to him, without any consideration of that particular point. When the new policy came into existence, the circumstances were such that naturally he would be likely to accept anything that was offered to him. His old company had collapsed, and his old insurance was worthless. The new was offered to him gratuitously. He was paying nothing for it, and it is well denominated “free insurance”; and it is altogether probable that he was following the homely adage not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So there is no circumstance proved here like that in the case just cited from the federal court of Virginia to invoke in behalf of the policy holder the idea that he was misled, and not advised of the conditions of his policy; nothing whatever to overcome the firmly established doctrine that ordinarily and without special circumstance the policy holder, by accepting the policy, takes it as it is written or printed, with all it's terms and conditions alike binding upon him; and this is particularly so when he agrees, as he did in this case, on the face of the policy itself, that the insurance should be “subject to all conditions indorsed hereon.” He must be conclusively presumed !o have read his policy unless the circumstances take the case out of that rule. Insurance Co. v. Fletcher, 117 U. S. 519, 529, 6 Sup. Ct. 887.

The great and substantial struggle between the parties in this case depends upon the proper construction of the language of the condition containing the exception relied upon to eliminate any liability in a case where the policy holder was murdered. Deeming'it possible that the rights of the parties might depend upon the construction of the phraseology of the old policy insuring in its broad terms against “bodily injuries effected through external, violent, and accidental means,” without any limitation applicable to the case of one murdered, or that it was possible that the exception in the new policy might be disregarded upon the “fine print” theory, there was a very learned and able argument between counsel upon the authorities cm the question whether or not the words of the old policy within themselves would cover a case of murder; whether death by murder, in the sense of the law, is a death by “accidental means,” which are the words of both policies; hut we are relieved from a consideration of this argument, or of the cases on either side, by the holding that the rights of the parties do not depend upon the old policy, and that the disputed condition of the new policy was accepted by Miller, and binding on him. It then becomes a question of the proper construction [42]*42of the language of the given condition or exception, as quoted in the special finding of facts.

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

Related

United States v. Charles Lynch
903 F.3d 1061 (Ninth Circuit, 2018)
Merchants & Bankers Guaranty Co. v. Downs
175 So. 704 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1937)
Kascoutas v. Federal Life Insurance
189 Iowa 889 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1920)
Modern Woodmen of America v. International Trust Co.
25 Colo. App. 26 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1913)
Harvey v. Texas & P. Ry. Co.
166 F. 385 (Fifth Circuit, 1909)
Jarnagin v. Travelers' Protective Ass'n
133 F. 892 (Sixth Circuit, 1904)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
88 F. 38, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2774, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-united-states-casualty-co-circtwdtn-1898.