Fidelity Mutual Life Ass'n v. McDaniel

57 N.E. 645, 25 Ind. App. 608, 1900 Ind. App. LEXIS 143
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 29, 1900
DocketNo. 2,852
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 57 N.E. 645 (Fidelity Mutual Life Ass'n v. McDaniel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity Mutual Life Ass'n v. McDaniel, 57 N.E. 645, 25 Ind. App. 608, 1900 Ind. App. LEXIS 143 (Ind. Ct. App. 1900).

Opinion

Comstock, J.

—Appellee sued appellant upon a policy of insurance upon the life of her husband, deceased. The complaint was in two paragraphs. The first alleged full compliance with all the conditions of the policy, and the second alleged compliance with the conditions except as'to furnishing proofs of death, which, it was averred, were waived. A copy of the policy is made a part of each paragraph. To this complaint appellant filed 'an answer in three paragraphs: (1) General denial; (2) breach of warranty contained in the so-called certificate of health and revival contract, in this, that in said certificate of health and revival contract, the insured stated that he had not consulted or been prescribed for by any physician, or received any medical treatment since the date of the original application, when, in fact, the insured had consulted, been prescribed for, and received medical treatment for inflammatory rheumatism in 1894; (3) breach of warranty contained in the [610]*610original application, in this, that the insured concealed the fact that he had been treated and prescribed for by a physician for a disease, to wit, la grippe, in 1892. To the second and third paragraphs of answers, appellee filed a reply in nine paragraphs. The third, fourth, seventh, eighth, and ninth paragraphs were dismissed.

The first paragraph of reply was a general denial. The second was addressed to the third paragraph of answer, and sets forth facts showing that the answer as to diseases, etc., which appellant alleges to be false, was not false in any material respect, and alleges facts showing good faith of insured in making the statement within the statute of Pennsylvania relating to representations in applications for life insurance, which statute is set out in the reply, and is as follows: “That hereafter, whenever the application for a policy of life insurance contains a clause of warranty, of the truth of the answers therein contained, no misrepresentation or untrue statement in such application made in good faith by the applicant, shall effect a forfeiture or be a ground of defense in any suit brought upon any policy of insurance issued upon the faith of such application, unless such misrepresentation or untrue statement relate to some matter material to the risk.” The fifth is also addressed to the third paragraph of answer, and is, in effect, the same as the second. The sixth is addressed to the second paragraph of answer. It takes up each separate allegation of the second paragraph of answer and denies the same, pleads the 'statute of Pennsylvania set forth in the second paragraph of reply, and alleges facts showing the good faith of insured in making the statements in the health certificate and revival contract.

A demurrer was filed to the second, fifth, and sixth paragraphs of reply, and same was overruled as to each. Trial was had and verdict and judgment rendered in favor of appellee for $2,175. The jury also answered interrogatories propounded by the court.

[611]*611The first specification of the assignment of errors is waived. The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth are based upon the ruling of the court upon the demurrer of the defendant to the several paragraphs of reply. The tenth, upon the action of the court in overruling the motion of the defendant after the cause had been submitted to the jury and it had returned its general verdict, bnt before it had returned the answers to interrogatories, for leave to amend the interrogatories, and to require the jury to return to its jury box and to return with their general verdict answers to the interrogatories as amended, and in directing the jury to sign the answers to interrogatories as they stood. The eleventh is the overruling of appellant’s motion for a new trial.

The demurrer to the second paragraph of reply to the third paragraph of the answer was overruled. The third paragraph of answer bases the defense upon the policy and written application of the insured. Counsel for appellee make the point that inasmuch as neither the policy nor the application is made a part of this paragraph, it is bad; citing Supreme Lodge, etc., v. Edwards, 15 Ind. App. 524, and Landon v. White, 101 Ind. 249, arguing therefrom without conceding that the third paragraph of reply is bad, that if the second paragraph of reply, which is addressed to the third paragraph of answer is bad, it is good enough for a bad answer. The policy, which is made a part of the complaint, and is the foundation of the action, reads: “In consideration of the application for this policy, which is made a part hereof, a copy of which is hereto attached.” The application is indorsed upon the policy. The policy in suit is referred to in the answer, and statements in the application alleged to have been false are set out in the answer. There is much force in the claim of appellant’s counsel that the application is a part of the policy. The reference to the policy in the answer obviates the necessity of making it an exhibit to the answer. But conceding, without deciding, [612]*612that the instruments named should have been exhibits to the answer, and that the replies, if bad, were good enough for the answer, the answer was not demurred to, and the plaintiff has no exception in the record under which an attack upon the answer can proceed in this court. The policy and application were introduced in evidence. The want of an exhibit, when the pleading is not demurred to, is a defect which is regarded as cured by verdict. Cummings v. Girton, 19 Ind. App. 248. The rule that a demurrer to a reply searches the record, does not apply to the record before us. This claim of appellee can not be allowed.

The third paragraph of answer avers that the insured was sick of la grippe for two weeks; that he was prescribed for and attended by a physician. The second paragraph of reply, after denying that he had la grippe, alleges that if he did have the same, the medical examiner of appellant knew the fact; that such examiner, upon examining the insured, stated to him that he was a first class risk, physically sound and a fit subject for life insurance; that the insured believed this. It then alleges the Pennsylvania statute set out at page two of this opinion regarding the effect of misstatements in the application, and avers that the alleged attack of la grippe was not la grippe but a severe cold, which yielded readily to treatment; that it did not affect the physical condition of the insured; that no bad effect of a permanent nature resulted therefrom to the insured, and that his death was not in any manner hastened nor caused thereby. From the averments of this part of the reply, it, appears that the knowledge of the illness of the insured, which it is alleged appellant had at the time it accepted the application and issued the policy, was acquired by reason of the fact that the medical examiner of the company was intimately acquainted with the insured and was the partner of his family physician who had treated him for the diseases, the knowledge of-which, he concealed from the com[613]*613pany. It has been held by this court in Shaffer v. Milwaukee, etc., Ins. Co., 17 Ind. App. 204, that when knowledge is obtained by an agent wholly independent of the business or employment of his principal and in a transaction in which his principal is not connected, such knowledge is not the knowledge of his principal.

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Bluebook (online)
57 N.E. 645, 25 Ind. App. 608, 1900 Ind. App. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-mutual-life-assn-v-mcdaniel-indctapp-1900.