Fidelity & Casualty Co. of New York v. Dorough

107 F. 389, 46 C.C.A. 364, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3720
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMarch 19, 1901
DocketNo. 922
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 107 F. 389 (Fidelity & Casualty Co. of New York v. Dorough) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity & Casualty Co. of New York v. Dorough, 107 F. 389, 46 C.C.A. 364, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3720 (5th Cir. 1901).

Opinion

PARDEE, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). It is conceded there is no law in the state of Texas authorizing the damages and attorney’s fees awarded in the verdict and judgment in this case, unless it be found in article 3071, Rev. St. Tex., adopted in 1895, as follows:

“Art. 3071. In all cases where a loss occurs and the life or health insurance company liable therefor shall fail to pay the same within the time specified in the policy, after demand made therefor, such company shall be liable to pay the holder of such policy, in addition to the amount of the loss, 12 per cent, damages on the amount of such loss, together with all reasonable attorney’s fees for the prosecution and collection of such loss.”

This section was a part of an act originally passed on May 2, 1874, prior to which time there were no statutes in the state of Texas regulating insurance companies. Other sections of the act of 1874, and afterwards incorporated in the Revised Statutes, are as follows:

“Art. 3073. It shall be unlawful for any life or health insurance company to take any kind of risks or issue any policies of insurance except those of life or health, nor shall the business of life or health insurance companies in this state be in any wise conducted or transacted by any company which in this, or any other state or country, is engaged or concerned in the business of marine, fire, inland or other insurance.”
“Art. 3061. It shall not be lawful for any person to act within this state [392]*392as Agent or otherwise in soliciting or receiving applications for insurance of any kind whatever or in any manner to aid in the transaction of the business of any insurance company incorporated in this state or out of it, without' first procuring a certificate of authority from the commissioner of agriculture, insurance statistics and history.’’

In February, 1875, another act was passed regulating the business of fire, marine, and inland insurance companies. See Rev. St. Tex. arts. 8074, 3085. And in April, 1895, an act was passed which, among other tilings, defined and distinguished life and accident insurance companies as follows:

“Art. 3096a. A life insurance company shall be deemed to be a corporation doing business under any charter involving the payment of money or other thing of value to families or representatives of policy-holders, conditioned upon the continuance or cessation of human life, or involving an insurance guarantee, contract or pledge, for the payment of endowments or annuities. An accident insurance company shall be deemed to be a corporation doing business under any charter involving the payment of money or .■other thing of value to families or representatives of policy-holders, conditioned upon the injury, displacement or death of persons resulting from traveling or general accident by land or water.”

Chapter 55 of the Laws of 1895 provides as follows:

“That there is hereby imposed upon and shall be collected from each and every person or firm acting as general agents of life, fire, marine and accident insurance companies who may transact any business as such in this state, an annual occupation tax of fifty dollars.”

In Association v. Yoakum, 39 C. C. A. 56, 98 Fed. 251, followed in Insurance Co. v. Ross, 42 C. C. A. 601, 102 Fed. 722, this court held that article 3071, above quoted, being in force at the time the contract of life insurance was made, became as much a part and parcel of the contract as if it had been expressly incorporated in the policy, and that as against life insurance companies doing business in the state of Texas after article 3071. became a.law, and issuing policies thereunder, said article was not in violation of the constitution of the United States. The question presented here, however, is not necessarily one of constitutionality of the said article in respect to the constitution of the United States, but, rather, of its applicability to accident insurance companies, as distinguished from life and health insurance companies. The contention was made below, and -evidently •allowed by the circuit court, and is renewed here, that an accident insurance company is a life or health insurance company, and therefore the statute applies. We have quoted the sections of the statute of Texas bearing upon insurance companies, and we think it plainly appears therefrom that accident insurance, in the legislative mind, was distinct from life and health insurance. The definitions of a life insurance company and of an accident insurance company, as given in the statutes above quoted, show this distinction. One is conditioned upon the continuance or cessation of human life; the other is conditioned upon injuries resulting from traveling, or general accident by land or water. Outside of the defining statute quoted, it is common knowledge that the one insures against the inevitable, with the intent that eventually the amount of the policy shall be paid to the beneficiary; the other insures against the accidental, with the in- = tent that the liability of the insurance company to pay the amount or [393]*393amounts stipulated shall attach only on the occurrence of bodily injuries to the insured, sustained through external, violent, and accidental causes. The distinction between accident insurance and health insurance is equally clear. Accidental injury may happen; sickness and infirm health may be considered as inevitable. In the one the amount of indemnity stipulated may never become due; in the other, if the policy is kept in force the indemnity stipulated is certain to become due. There is little doubt that the statute in question, imposing penalties upon life and health insurance companies which are so combative as to contend for their supposed lights under written contracts containing resolutory and suspensive conditions,' and hast'd on warranties, in the courts of the state of Texas, when the right to so contest is denied no oilier class of suitors, is penal in its character; and, we take it, there is no doubt of the proposition that statutes penal in their nature are to be construed strictly, and not extended by implication, intendments, analogies, or equitable considerations. Black, Interp. Law, 286; Potter, Dwar. St. 245 et seq.; Suth. St. Const. §§ 358, 366; Railway Co. v. Dwyer, 84 Tex. 194, 19 S. W. 470; Schloss v. Railway Co., 85 Tex. 601, 22 S. W. 1014; U. S. v. Harris, 177 U. S. 305, 20 Sup. Ct. 609, 44 L. Ed. 780. If the statute in question is regarded as not penal, hut only remedial, still it ought not to be construed to include more than Us plain language imports. See Turner v. Cross, 83 Tex. 218, 18 S. W. 578, 15 L. R. A. 262. It follows that, in our judgment, there is no law of the state of Texas authorizing the damages and attorney’s fees allowed in this case. What we have said disposes of the first contention of the defendant in error, and this disposition renders it unnecessary to pass upon the second any further than we have done above.

The record shows the following proceedings in the court below:

“The defendant, after having established the fact that Mrs. M. E. Dorough, the plaintiff, was present when a conversation occurred between R. T.

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107 F. 389, 46 C.C.A. 364, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3720, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-casualty-co-of-new-york-v-dorough-ca5-1901.