Cincinnati Life Insurance v. Mickles

148 S.W.3d 768, 85 Ark. App. 188, 2004 Ark. App. LEXIS 159
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 25, 2004
DocketCA 03-182
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 148 S.W.3d 768 (Cincinnati Life Insurance v. Mickles) 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
Cincinnati Life Insurance v. Mickles, 148 S.W.3d 768, 85 Ark. App. 188, 2004 Ark. App. LEXIS 159 (Ark. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

John B. Robbins, Judge.

A Pulaski County jury found ap-pellant Cincinnati Life Insurance Company liable for bad faith and outrage and appellant Aon Risk Services, Inc., liable for deceit and outrage. Appellee Linda Mickles, the plaintiff below, was awarded $120,000 in compensatory damages, for which each appellant was deemed equally responsible, and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against each appellant individually. On appeal, both appellants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdicts against them. Appellant Aon also argues that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on deceit and that the trial court erred in admitting a pretrial deposition into evidence. We affirm the verdicts as to Cincinnati Life but reverse and remand the verdicts against Aon on the basis of the erroneous jury instruction.

Appellant Cincinnati Life Insurance Company (CLIC) sells life insurance policies to persons at their places of employment. Appellant Aon Risk Services, Inc., was CLIC’s agent and sent enrollers to various locations around the country for the purpose of soliciting applications. 1 After an enroller completed a set of applications, he would send them to Aon’s home office in Georgia. There, Aon employees would look at the applications to make sure they were properly completed and, if so, send them to CLIC. CLIC’s underwriting department would then decide whether to issue a policy.

On July 23, 1996, CLIC policies were marketed to employees of Chenal Rehabilitation Clinic in Little Rock. Appellee was a minimum-wage worker in the laundry department at the clinic. That day, she completed nine applications for life insurance policies — six on her children and three on her grandchildren. In completing the applications, she verbally communicated information to the enroller, who filled in the blanks, and marked the appropriate boxes on the application.

The application for appellee’s son Antonio is the one at issue in this case. It reflects that Antonio was just under twenty-one years old at the time of the application, that he was married, and that he was a full-time student. At the top of the application, the words “Spouse Dependent Grandchild” appear; the word “dependent” is circled. The face amount of the policy applied for originally read $38,942, but that was marked through and the amount of $28,942 was written in its place. The weekly premium amount shown is $3. The application was signed by appellee and by James Foster of Aon as the “Agent Witness.”

In the process of executing the applications, appellee questioned the enroller about whether Antonio would qualify for a policy because he was married and did not live with her. She explained that Antonio had a learning disability and could not read or write and qualified for SSI benefits, which she received and distributed to him as needed to pay bills. The enroller assured appellee that Antonio qualified for a policy. According to appellee, the enroller also told her that the policy would pay double indemnity should Antonio’s death be accidental.

The application on Antonio was accepted by CLIC, and the policy was delivered in November 1996. On December 17, 1996, Antonio was murdered in Little Rock. Appellee notified CLIC of his death, and CLIC asked her to send a proof-of-death statement and a death certificate, which she did on or about January 9, 1997. The paperwork was received at CLIC by Larry Arlen, the manager of life and health claims. Because Antonio’s death had occurred within the two-year contestibility period, Arlen reviewed the claim. He discovered that Antonio’s death certificate listed his occupation as a laborer, which did not correspond to the representation on the application that Antonio was a dependent and a full-time student. Arlen decided to send an Equifax investigator to "obtain a statement from appellee.

The investigator interviewed appellee and thereafter wrote out a statement, which appellee signed. The statement reflected that appellee said that Antonio had been married since April 23, 1996; that he had last attended school in 1993; that he had not lived with her since early 1995; and that he “was not my dependent”and “was not a dependent residing with me.” Appellee also said, just as she had to the enroller, that Antonio’s SSI benefits came to her and that she distributed money to him as he needed it. Further, she said that she had not told the enroller that Antonio was a full-time student.

At about the same time that the Equifax investigation was taking place, Arlen sent a questionnaire to James Foster of Aon, whose name had appeared on the application as the witnessing agent. In his answers dated February 4, 1997, Foster represented that he had taken the application from appellee, that appellee had answered the questions on the application, and that the answers were accurately recorded. At one point, the questionnaire asked: “Did [appellee] tell you Antonio Robinson was a full time student?” Foster did not respond to that question.

On April 3, 1997, CLIC sent a letter to appellee rescinding the policy and refunding $36 in premiums. The letter stated that the application showed that Antonio was a dependent and a full-time student but that CLIC’s investigation showed otherwise and, had CLIC known the truth, it would not have issued the policy. On April 10, 1997, appellee wrote a letter to the Arkansas Insurance Department. She stated that somehow CLIC was under the impression that she had told them that Antonio was a full-time student but that she had not; she further said that her son was a dependent, with his SSI check coming to her. CLIC responded to the Insurance Department’s inquiry on April 22, 1997. Its letter explained that CLIC policies could be issued only to non-employees under age twenty-three who were full-time students and dependent on the employee; that, at the time of the application, Antonio was not a dependent or a full-time student; and that the policy was issued “due to the misrepresentation of [appellee] on the application.”

Thereafter, appellee obtained legal counsel and hired a forensic expert to examine the writing on the application that referred to Antonio as a full-time student. The expert concluded that the handwriting on the words “full time student” was not consistent with the writing on the remainder of the application. Further, the expert could not match appellee’s handwriting to the writing on the application. The expert also said that none of the writing on the other eight applications that appellee filled out that day (which merely used the term “student”) matched the writing on “full time student” in Antonio’s application. In short, her examination revealed that the words “full time student” were placed on the application by someone other than appellee or the enroller, who had been identified as James Foster.

On July 31, 1998, appellee sued CLIC, James Foster, and Larry Arlen for breach of contract, bad faith, outrage, fraud, and other torts. During the process of discovery, the deposition of James Foster was taken on February 24, 2000. In his deposition, Foster said that, although his signature appeared as witnessing agent on appellee’s application, he had never been to Little Rock and had not taken appellee’s application. He testified that Aon often hired persons to enroll applicants at various workplace locations; however, he did not know who had been to Little Rock on July 23, 1996.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 S.W.3d 768, 85 Ark. App. 188, 2004 Ark. App. LEXIS 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cincinnati-life-insurance-v-mickles-arkctapp-2004.