Capitol Life & Accident Insurance v. Phelps

66 S.W.3d 678, 76 Ark. App. 428, 2002 Ark. App. LEXIS 46
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 13, 2002
DocketCA 01-769
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 66 S.W.3d 678 (Capitol Life & Accident Insurance v. Phelps) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Capitol Life & Accident Insurance v. Phelps, 66 S.W.3d 678, 76 Ark. App. 428, 2002 Ark. App. LEXIS 46 (Ark. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

Terry Crabtree, Judge.

Appellant, Capitol Life and Accident Insurance Company (Capitol), appeals the denial of its claim for rescission of three credit-life policies issued to the late Lincoln Phelps and a subsequent judgment in favor of Phelps’s widow, appeÜee Lela Phelps. This is the third time this case has been before us. On the first occasion, we reversed a circuit court jury verdict in favor of appellee and instructed that the case be transferred to chancery. See Capitol Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Phelps, No. CA98-1495 (June 2, 1999). Following a trial in chancery court, which also resulted in a verdict in favor of appellee, another appeal was taken by Capitol. We dismissed that appeal for lack of finality. See Capitol Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Phelps, 72 Ark. App. 464, 37 S.W.3d 692 (2001). Thereafter, a final order was entered by the chancellor, and this appeal was brought. We are able to reach the merits on this appeal, and we affirm the chancellor’s decision.

Between October 24, 1995, and March 8, 1996, Lincoln Phelps submitted applications to appellant for three credit life policies. Each application contained the following language;

I VOLUNTARILY REQUEST THE INSURANCE DESCRIBED IN THIS POLICY. I . . . AM . . . NOW IN GOOD HEALTH, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY, AND HAVE NO CHRONIC DISEASE OR POOR HEALTH CONDITION.

The applications were signed by Phelps and forwarded to appellant, who then issued policies in the amounts of $21,107.07, $6,690.22, and $24,812.78, for a total of $52,610.07.

On September 13, 1996, while all three policies were in effect, Lincoln Phelps died at age fifty-four. His death certificate listed the cause of death as acute myocardial infarction due to cardiac dysrhythmia. Appellee Lela Phelps, as executrix of her husband’s estate, submitted claims to appellant on all three policies, but the claims were denied. Following that denial, Mrs. Phelps sued appellant seeking the policy proceeds, plus a twelve-percent penalty, interest, and attorney fees, pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 23-79-208 (Repl. 1999). Appellant counterclaimed for rescission on the grounds that Phelps had misrepresented his health as being good when in fact it was not, and further, had appellant known the true state of Phelps’s health, it would not have issued the policies.

On January 18, 2000, a trial was held in chancery court. Appellee presented the testimony of herself and others that Lincoln Phelps had always been a vigorous, hard-working man with no visible health problems. The evidence was undisputed that Phelps consistently worked at hard physical labor for up to twelve hours a day, rarely missed work due to illness, had not been hospitalized in the twenty years preceding his death, and gave no outward indication of being in anything other than good health. Appellant, however, introduced Phelps’s medical records into evidence, and they revealed that, at various times during the twenty years preceding his death, Phelps had been diagnosed with Graves disease (a thyroid disorder), hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and a mitral valve insufficiency. Appellant’s vice-president, Paul Eaton, testified that, had appellant known of the health problems reflected in those records, it would not have issued the policies.

Following the trial, the chancellor ruled that the terms “good health” and “poor health condition” in the policy applications were ambiguous and that the term “chronic disease” while not ambiguous, was unclear. He also stated that “the Court cannot answer the question that [Phelps’s alleged misrepresentation] was material to the denial. Mr. Eaton, testifying for the insurance company, states [that] they would not have issued the policy, but his testimony is after the fact.” Based upon these findings, the chancellor denied appellant’s request to rescind the policies and entered judgment for appellee in the amount of $52,610.01. He also awarded appellee a twelve percent penalty, prejudgment interest, attorney fees, costs, and post-judgment interest, for a total judgment of $121,037.11. The appeal is brought from that order.

Misrepresentations, omissions, concealment of facts, and incorrect statements shall not prevent recovery under an insurance policy unless either: 1) fraudulent; 2) material to either the acceptance of the risk or to the hazard assumed by the insurer; or 3) the insurer in good faith would not have issued the policy, or would not have issued it in the same amount, or at the same premium rate, or would not have provided coverage with respect to the hazard resulting in the loss if the facts had been made known to the insurer as required by the application for the policy. See Ark. Code Ann. § 23-79-107(a) (Repl. 1999). Appellant does not contend that Phelps fraudulently misrepresented the state of his health, but argues that Phelps’s incorrect statement of good health was material to its acceptance of the risk and that, had it known the true facts, it would not have issued the policy. This is an affirmative defense that an insurer must plead and prove by a preponderance of the evidence. See American Family Life Assurance Co. v. Reeves, 248 Ark. 1303, 455 S.W.2d 932 (1970).

In deciding appeals from a chancery court, we review the evidence de novo and reverse only if the chancellor’s findings are clearly erroneous. Morse v. Morse, 60 Ark. App. 215, 961 S.W.2d 111 (1998). Further, we give great deference to the chancellor’s superior position to determine the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be accorded their testimony. Simmons First Bank v. Bob Callahan Servs., Inc., 340 Ark. 692, 13 S.W.3d 570 (2000).

Appellant first challenges the chancellor’s ruling that the language in the applications was ambiguous. An ambiguity exists when a provision in a policy or application is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation. Phelps v. U.S. Credit Life Ins. Co., 336 Ark. 257, 984 S.W.2d 425 (1999).

The supreme court has defined the term “good health” as used in this context to mean that an applicant is in “apparent good health and free from such diseases as would seriously affect the risk.” Union Life Ins. Co. v. Davis, 247 Ark. 1054, 1059, 449 S.W.2d 192, 195 (1970). The court further qualified that definition, stating that the applicant “must be justified in the belief that he is free of symptoms which should cause reasonable apprehension of disease which would materially affect the risk.” Id. at 1060, 449 S.W.2d at 195. Based upon the fact that Phelps was virtually asymptomatic and able to lead a normal —■ if not more vigorous than normal — life, it is likely that he was justified in believing himself to be in good health. However, we need not address that point. Even if the application language was unambiguous, and even if Phelps incorrectly represented the state of his health, appellant could not void the policy unless it proved, pursuant to Ark. Code Ann.

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Bluebook (online)
66 S.W.3d 678, 76 Ark. App. 428, 2002 Ark. App. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/capitol-life-accident-insurance-v-phelps-arkctapp-2002.