Janet Bouvier v. The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company

914 F.2d 260, 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 25107, 1990 WL 135917
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 18, 1990
Docket89-2826
StatusUnpublished

This text of 914 F.2d 260 (Janet Bouvier v. The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Janet Bouvier v. The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, 914 F.2d 260, 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 25107, 1990 WL 135917 (7th Cir. 1990).

Opinion

914 F.2d 260

Unpublished Disposition
NOTICE: Seventh Circuit Rule 53(b)(2) states unpublished orders shall not be cited or used as precedent except to support a claim of res judicata, collateral estoppel or law of the case in any federal court within the circuit.
Janet BOUVIER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
The PAUL REVERE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 89-2826.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 12, 1990.
Decided Sept. 18, 1990.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, and CUMMINGS and WOOD, JR., Circuit Judges.

ORDER

This is a diversity case that Plaintiff-Appellant Janet Bouvier no doubt now wishes she had not brought.

After receiving her applications dated May 18 and June 11, 1984, for an individual disability income insurance policy Defendant-Appellee, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Co., a corporation, issued the policy effective July 14, 1984. Later plaintiff submitted a claim for monthly benefits based upon her alleged total disability caused by exposure to tobacco smoke, fumes, and pollutants at work. Defendant thereafter made claim payments to plaintiff of $2,000.00 per month for the period January 17, 1986, to October 14, 1986; totalling $18,733.34. These monthly payments were discontinued when defendant determined that plaintiff was no longer totally disabled. Plaintiff disagreed with that determination and brought this suit seeking a resumption of claim payments on the basis that she was still totally disabled. The defendant answered, denying that plaintiff continued to be totally disabled, and sought judgment in its favor. Discovery began.

As discovery progressed, the character of this case changed. Defendant came to determine that plaintiff's original insurance applications about her medical and health history were false, incomplete and misleading, and were material to the risks defendant would incur in issuing the policy. Defendant then filed a motion for summary judgment and, based on the claimed misinformation supplied by plaintiff, defendant sought to void the policy ab initio and recover the monthly disability benefits previously paid to plaintiff in the amount of $18,733.34.

The district court granted defendant's summary judgment motion and entered judgment in favor of defendant and against plaintiff in the total amount of the previously paid disability benefits less the premiums paid by plaintiff. A copy of the district court's order is attached and made a part hereof. We affirm, and add a few additional comments.

Plaintiff was not a mere innocent applying for the defendant's policy. Both she and her husband, who assisted her, were experienced insurance producers. His insurance specialty was selling disability insurance. That is what he did in this case as he submitted his wife's application and received commissions from defendant.

Plaintiff complains that the district court granted summary judgment without analyzing the factual material to determine if there were unresolved issues of material fact. The district judge sufficiently sifted through the materials presented, analyzed them, and determined that there were no conflicts of material fact. Not every conflict in the evidence need be resolved if the uncontested material facts are sufficient as a matter of law to sustain the judgment. Plaintiff does not dispute the generally accepted principles of summary judgment law, only the application of these principles.

Plaintiff argues that she did not have the benefit of any conflicting fact issues being viewed in a light most favorable to her, and that the granting of the summary judgment was the district court's excuse for a summary clearing of the court's docket. In our view the uncontradicted material evidence clearly apparent in this record cannot be viewed in any light favorable to plaintiff. A bare contention that an issue of fact exists is not enough. Andersen v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 247-48 (1986); Whetstine v. Gates Rubber Co., 895 F.2d 388, 395 (7th Cir.1990). Neither mere denials of material fact by a non-moving party, nor argument or conclusions without evidentiary support are sufficient to prolong this case for a jury trial. Posey v. Skyline Corp., 702 F.2d 102 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 960 (1983); First Nat'l Bank Co. v. Insurance Co., 606 F.2d 760, 768 (7th Cir.1979). Rather, "[a] party faced with a motion for summary judgment who bears the burden of proof on a particular issue may not rest on its pleadings but must affirmatively demonstrate, by specific factual allegations, that there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324 (1986).

Plaintiff must have known she had a good faith obligation to make a full and complete disclosure of her medical history when she made her disability insurance application. American Ins. Corp. v. Sederes, 807 F.2d 1402, 1406 (7th Cir.1986); Apolskis v. Concord Life Ins. Co., 445 F.2d 31, 35 (7th Cir.1971). Her applications were neither full nor complete in material respects. Some truths, some omissions, some false statements, some misleading answers, and some incomplete answers do not add up to a jury trial if there is even one material fact that cannot be adequately disputed and that one fact would by itself be sufficient to void the policy.

Plaintiff failed to reveal the names of all her doctors and past treatments. She suggested in her answers that there was nothing adversely significant about her health, she was "OK now," had "no further problems," and that her physical examination resulted in "all normal findings." We are impressed with the fact, for instance, that at the time of her application plaintiff had been undergoing a series of sixty-six treatments from December 1982 to February 1984 for chronic back and spinal conditions. She had been treated 3 times in 1983 for bronchitis, had suffered from pneumonia in 1983 for about 2 weeks, had complained of migraine headaches for about 10 years, had arthritis, and had had some asthma symptoms as a child. To argue that the defendant should have launched its own full-scale investigation of plaintiff's medical condition before issuing the policy in spite of the satisfactory health picture painted by plaintiff is unavailing. Efforts to explain away the discrepancies or to minimize them is not enough. The applications were clearly deficient and caused the policy to issue when it otherwise would not have.

A procedural argument is made that plaintiff was not permitted adequate time for discovery after defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment was filed.

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Bluebook (online)
914 F.2d 260, 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 25107, 1990 WL 135917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/janet-bouvier-v-the-paul-revere-life-insurance-com-ca7-1990.