Doty v. American National Insurance Co.

165 S.W.2d 862, 350 Mo. 192, 143 A.L.R. 1062, 1942 Mo. LEXIS 592
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 10, 1942
DocketNo. 38184.
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 165 S.W.2d 862 (Doty v. American National Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doty v. American National Insurance Co., 165 S.W.2d 862, 350 Mo. 192, 143 A.L.R. 1062, 1942 Mo. LEXIS 592 (Mo. 1942).

Opinion

DOUGLAS, P. J.

— This is an action on a policy of life insurance bearing 'a principal sum of $300 with weekly premiums of ten cents. The policy was issued by defendant on the life of Dorothy Boswell whose mother, Rosa Boswell, is beneficiary. The plaintiff' is the latter’s assignee. . .

Premiums were paid for more than five years until March 18, 1935, when the policy lapsed for nonpayment. The insured died on November 8, 1937, as the result of an accident. The policy is described *197 as whole life insurance and contains a provision that the first year’s insurance is term insurance.

The petition is in two counts.' The first is to recover the' death' benefit. The second count is to recover the extra indemnity provided in the policy because of the accidental death of insured: The case was tried to the court on an agreed statement of facts. Plaintiff recovered judgment on both' counts and defendant appealed to" the St. - Louis Court of Appeals. That court affirmed the judgment on the first count but reversed the judgment on the second count. 160 S. W. (2d) 810. One of the judges dissented from the reversal of the judgment on the second count and the case was certified here.

We consider the case anew as though it came here by ordinary appellate process.

In view of the fact the policy lapsed, plaintiff ’s recovery must come through extended insurance. The policy contains no provision for extended insurance. Therefore, plaintiff must look to the statutory nonforfeiture benefits if he is to recover.

The nonforfeiture statute (Sec. 5852, R. S. 1939) provides that’ no life insurance policy after three or. more annual payments have been made on it shall be forfeited for nonpayment of premiums. The net value of the policy shall be computed upon the actuaries’ or combined experience table of mortality with four per cent interest per' annum. Three-fourths of its net value shall be used as a single premium for temporary or extended insurance for the full amount of the policy.

However, plaintiff for his principal theory of recovery does not rely entirely on the statute but contends that the net value of the policy at the time of the lapse shall be computed by using the more favorable basis of computation employed in the policy table for a “free policy.”

The policy contains the following “Whole Life — Free Policy” clause:

“ (1) At any time after premiums have been paid hereon for three full years, and while this Policy is in force, the Company-will, updn written application to the Home Office upon blank furnished by the Company accompanied by this Policy and all Receipt Books, grant the insured a Free Policy of life insurance, payable at the same time and under the same conditions as this Policy, but upon which no further payment of premiums shall be required, in accordance with the following table: ”

Then follows a table setting forth certain paid up values according to the age of the insured and the number of years the policy has continued in force, based on the American Experience Table of Mortality with interest at 31/2 per cent per annum.

Using the policy table plaintiff finds that for the period the policy was in force a free policy in the sum of.$23.23 is provided.- He *198 calculates that the net value or reserve necessary to furnish a free policy of such an amount would be $6.16. Taking this figure as a. net single premium, he determines the extended insurance and finds it would have reached beyond the death of the insured.

Defendant admits the correctness of plaintiff’s actuarial calculations,but asserts that the policy figures may not be used to determine the amount of extended insurance. Its reason is that since the policy is silent as to extended insurance the statute supplies the sole basis for its calculation.

On this issue Commissioner Bennick, speaking for the St. Louis Court of Appeals appropriately said: “It is of course true that Section 5852 is as much a part of every contract of life insurance issued in this state as though it had been expressly written into it; and it is also true that the section’s requirements are only minimum requirements which the parties may exceed by special agreement between themselves with respect to the subject matter of the statute. In other words, the company, if it makes provision for extended insurance in its policy, may unquestionably grant privileges to the insured more favorable than the minimum requirements of the statute-; and if it does so, then the insured, or the plaintiff in an action upon' the policy, may claim the benefit of the more favorable provision, and this even to the point of permitting him to base his claim in part upon a more favorable policy provision, and in part upon a more, favorable statutory requirement with which some less favorable policy provision may be in conflict and therefore invalid. Gooch v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 333 Mo. 191, 61 S. W. (2d) 704.

“In urging his position, plaintiff attempts to bring himself within such doctrine, and insists that in calculating the amount and term- of extended insurance granted by Section 5852 (and by said section alone in view of the total absence of any provision in the policy with respect to extended insurance), he may be permitted to disregard the provisions of the statute prescribing the method by which the amount of the -net single premium available for the purchase of extended insurance shall be ascertained, and to substitute in its stead the more favorable value contained in the table of values set forth in the policy itself in connection with, and as a part of, the 'Whole Life — Free Policy’ provision.

“While it is true that in resolving a question having to do with the amount and term of extended insurance under the policy in suit, plaintiff, in case of a conflict between the statutory and the policy provisions, would be entitled to claim the benefit of whichever provision was more favorable to him, even to the point of basing his claim in part upon the statute and in part upon the policy, where he falls into error-is in assuming that in this particular case there were any conflicting provisions so as to warrant the application of such doctrine.”

*199 There can be no conflict between the benefits in event of lapse granted by the statute and those granted by the policy because the policy grants no such benefits. The free or paid-up policy may.be had only while the insurance remains in force. It is in no sense a nonforfeiture benefit. Accordingly, we rule that under these circumstances plaintiff is confined to -the statute alone in computing the extended insurance.

This ruling is contrary to the decision in Finnigan v. American National Insurance Co., 235 Mo. App. 332, 137 S. W. (2d) 698, on which plaintiff relies for his use of the values set out in the policy table. In that case such was the only issue on identical policy provisions. The trial court in the instant case was bound by that case and followed it.

The Finnigan case was based on our decision in Gooch v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 333 Mo. 191, 61 S. W.

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Bluebook (online)
165 S.W.2d 862, 350 Mo. 192, 143 A.L.R. 1062, 1942 Mo. LEXIS 592, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doty-v-american-national-insurance-co-mo-1942.