Home/Supreme Court of Missouri/Hutchinson v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

Hutchinson v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

293 S.W.2d 307, 1956 Mo. LEXIS 759
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 9, 1956
DocketNo. 45003
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 293 S.W.2d 307 (Hutchinson v. Metropolitan Life 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
Hutchinson v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 293 S.W.2d 307, 1956 Mo. LEXIS 759 (Mo. 1956).

Opinion

HOLLINGSWORTH, Judge.

In this action, plaintiff Helen Hutchinson, widow of Newton H. Hutchinson, deceased, joined with her assignee, one J. Carl Fogle, sued defendant, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, to recover the sum of $15,000, plus the further sum of $2,500 for attorneys’ fees and vexatious refusal to pay, claimed to be due her as beneficiary under a contract of life insurance allegedly entered into between defendant, as insurer, and Newton H. Hutchinson, as the insured. Defendant admitted the death of Newton H. Hutchinson and denied that it ever entered into the contract pleaded in plaintiffs’ petition. Upon trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiffs in the sum of $10,000 “on the contract” and the sum of $1,008 attorneys’ fees, for which total sum judgment was entered. Thereafter, defendant’s motion to set aside the judgment and to enter judgment for defendant in accordance with its motion for directed verdict filed at the close of all of the evidence was sustained and final judgment was entered for defendant, from which plaintiffs have appealed.

The amount in dispute being in excess of $7,500, exclusive of costs, jurisdiction of the appeal is vested in this Court. Article V, Section 3, Constitution of Missouri, V.A.M.S.

Helen Hutchinson (hereinafter referred to as though she were the only plaintiff), her husband, Newton H. Hutchinson, and their daughter resided in Kansas City, Missouri, during and prior to the year 1946. Mr. Hutchinson was in the produce business at the City Market in Kansas City, but sold and delivered produce from his warehouse to stores outstate. Mr. Hutchinson, plaintiff and their daughter were holders of policies of life insurance priorly issued by defendant. During the year 1946, Earl R. James, as agent for defendant, began to call at the Hutchinson home to collect the premiums on their policies. James suggested to plaintiff that her husband, whom James had never met, needed more insurance. Pursuant to that suggestion, an appointment was made for James to call at the Hutchinson home on the evening of November 12, 1946, at which meeting were present plaintiff, Mr. Hutchinson and James. The discussion and transaction of that evening constitute the basis of plaintiff’s action.

James produced and exhibited to Mr. Hutchinson a single page of printed matter, on which he had written in ink the words and figures hereinafter identified by underscoring, reading as follows:

[309]*309

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Related

Poeppelmeyer v. Shelter Life Insurance Co.
688 S.W.2d 48 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1985)
Burckhardt v. General American Life Insurance Co.
534 S.W.2d 57 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1975)
Herhalser v. Herhalser
401 S.W.2d 187 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
293 S.W.2d 307, 1956 Mo. LEXIS 759, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutchinson-v-metropolitan-life-insurance-co-mo-1956.