Griego v. New York Life Ins. Co.

102 P.2d 31, 44 N.M. 330
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedApril 16, 1940
DocketNo. 4465.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 102 P.2d 31 (Griego v. New York Life Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Griego v. New York Life Ins. Co., 102 P.2d 31, 44 N.M. 330 (N.M. 1940).

Opinion

MABRY, Justice.

Plaintiff filed her complaint alleging that she was the beneficiary named in an insurance policy issued by defendant on November 9th, 1937, on the life of plaintiffs husband; that the insured died February 25th, 1938; that due proofs of death had been furnished; and that the defendant had refused payment.

Defendant filed an answer and cross-complaint, in which it admitted all allegations of the complaint except the liability claimed. In addition an affirmative defense was interposed to the effect that the insured had obtained the policy by means of a written application .by him signed, wherein, answering interrogatories submitted, he made certain materially false and fraudulent representations regarding his health and medical history. It was further alleged that a true copy of the application was attached to the policy when issued and that the policy, with attached copy of application, was delivered to the insured on November 16th, 1937, and accepted and retained by him up to the date of his death without objection or notice to the defendant that any representation or answer in the application was incorrect or false.

By reply and answer to the answer and cross-complaint plaintiff admitted that the insured had made and signed the application, admitted that the false answers specified in the answer and cross-complaint were incorporated in the application the insured signed, and admitted them to be false. But she alleged that defendant’s soliciting agent, Fairchild, wrote the application; that the insured signed it without reading it; that the insured fully disclosed the truth as regards his health and medical history in answer to the questions; and that the agent wrote down the false answers without the knowledge of the insured. She admitted the delivery of the policy with true copy of application attached, and the retention of it without objection or notice of the falsity of the answers; but alleged that the insured immediately put the policy away without reading it. She further charged the defendant, as a matter of law, with knowledge of the falsity of the answers through the knowledge of its agent.

To this reply and answer defendant demurred, raising the points: (1) that it was the duty of the insured to read the application before signing it, and that his failure to read it was not enough to permit him to escape the consequence of its falsity; and (2) that it was the duty of the-insured to read the contract (policy and attached copy of application) thereafter delivered to him, and that by retaining it without objection, whether he read it or not, he adopted the false answers as his own. The demurrer was overruled.

Defendant then replied denying each allegation of new matter Contained in plaintiff’s answer to the cross-complaint. The cause was heard upon the merits on the foregoing pleadings, the issues were found for the plaintiff and defendant company appeals.

Due proofs of death were furnished, defendant refused to pay the loss, and tendered return of all premiums paid upon its election to rescind the contract because of alleged false representation in the application.

■ The application signed by the insured, a copy of which was attached to the policy when issued and delivered, contained the following representations in response to questions found in the application form:

“Have you within the last five years been continuously and are you now in good health? Yes.”

“Have you now, or have you ever had, or ever been told that you have, tuberculosis of lungs or any part of the body, spitting of blood, high blood pressure, heart trouble, diabetes, disease of brain or nerv-ous system, paralysis, epilepsy, syphilis, cancer or tumor, stomach or intestinal ulcer? None.”

“Have you ever undergone any operation, or have you ever been under observation or treatment in any hospital or sanitarium? No.”

“Have you lost any time from work through illness during the last five years? No.”

“State below each ailment, disease, impaired condition of body or mind, surgical operation, or injury, which you have had within the past five years, and the name of every physician, or practitioner, if any, whom you have consulted or who treated you. None.”

The application also contained the following affirmations, representations and agreements: “On behalf of myself and of every person who shall have or claim any interest in any insurance made hereunder, I declare that I have carefully read each and all of the above answers, that they are each written as made by me, and that each of them is full, complete and true, and agree that the Company believing them to be true shall rely and act upon them.”

The insured had not been continuously in good health within the five years preceding the date of his application. He had consulted a physician at Raton and upon the advice of such physician had been confined in a hospital at La Junta, Colorado, during the entire period from August 7th to August 27th, in the year 1934, where, and through which period, he was under treatment for gastro entritis and other ailments; and, again, on the advice of his physician, he was confined in the same hospital during the entire period from August 27th to October 9th, in the year 1935. Deceased was likewise again during all this second period undergoing treatment for gastro entritis. In addition, he suffered from and was treated for pneumonia in the year of 1932. Thus the insured did in fact suffer from illnesses and lose time from work on account thereof within five years prior to the date of his application.

Several assignments of error are presented, but the principal ones may be embraced in this simple group: First, defendant challenges the legal sufficiency of plaintiff’s pleading to sustain recovery; Second, the court erred in holding that the insured’s truthful answers were given in good faith, without knowledge that false answers were written down and that the insured was not a participant in and did not know of the fraud, and that the judgment is without substantial evidence for its support.

Defendant points out that one distinctive feature of the case at bar is that the fraud practiced by the agent as claimed by plaintiff was against the' company, his principal, and not against the insured who stood to profit if the fraud should remain undiscovered for two years; that the deceased was an uninsurable risk and that by a rescission of the policy and denial of recovery thereupon, he loses nothing which he was ever entitled to have and full justice will be done, citing New York Life Insurance Co. v. Fletcher, 117 U.S. 519, 6 S.Ct. 837, 29 L.Ed. 934.

Defendant urges then that we appraise the situation as different from one where a fraud practiced is upon the insured. Of course in such cases, defendant points out, the principal should bear the responsibility through imputation of the agent’s knowledge to such principal. This is in line with Vermont Farm Machinery Co. v. Ash, 23 N.M. 647, 170 P. 741; Griffith v. Tierney, 34 N.M. 387, 281 P.

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Bluebook (online)
102 P.2d 31, 44 N.M. 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griego-v-new-york-life-ins-co-nm-1940.