Kelly v. Life Insurance Clearing Co.

113 Ala. 453
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 15, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 113 Ala. 453 (Kelly v. Life Insurance Clearing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelly v. Life Insurance Clearing Co., 113 Ala. 453 (Ala. 1896).

Opinion

PIARALSON, J.

The plaintiff’s counsel in his brief, states the issue on the pleadings in the case, as follows : ‘ ‘The theories upon which the causes of demurrer are based, are, 1st, That the policies themselves contain the only conditions, stipulations and warranties upon which they were issued ; and, 2d, That if the said application and health certificate are to be considered parts of the contract of insurance, and as containing some of the conditions upon which the policies were issued, said statements in said application and in said certificates are to be considered as representations and not as warranties, and, being only representations, the matter complained of must have been material to the risk.”

The defendant’s counsel states the issues as to the pleas 1, 2 and 3, and demurrer thereto to the same effect, as follows : “The first question tobe considered is, do the said pleas (1, 2 and 3) show that the said answers were warranted by the insured in said contracts of insurance sued on, to be true? If they do show such warranty, then the demurrers of plaintiff thereto were properly overruled; otherwise, they should have been sustained.”

The parties are thus agreed as to the substance and effect of the demurrers to the pleas, and we may, therefore, consider the questions thus presented, 1st, whether we are to look alone to the face of the policies, as containing the only conditions, stipulations and warranties-upon which they were issued ; 2d, if we go outside the policies themselves, and look at the application for insurance, and health certificate, as it is called, as parts of the contract of insurance, whether the statements therein contained are to be regarded as representations only, — the matter, as alleged, not being material to the risk, — or, they are tobe treated as warranties, the breach of which will avoid the policies.

The policies themselves contain an express warranty in respect to the health of the insured, and his freedom from any disease ; of his age, and the exemption of his parents, brothers and sisters from specified diseases. It is then provided in each, ‘ ‘it is expressly agreed, that if the above declarations and warranty shall be found un[463]*463true in any respect, or, if there shall be any breach thereof whatever, then this policy shall be ipso facto null and void, and all payments thereon shall be forfeited to the company.”

If this were all, and the policies were to be construed ■without reference to any other contemporaneous writings, only those statements which are found in the policies themselves, and expressly warranted to be true, could be considered as warranties, — the rule being, that courts will not create or extend a warranty by construction. But, the rule of law is well settled and familiar, that different writings, executed at the same time and relating to the same subject matter, will be construed as one instrument. The intention of the parties controls, and is to be gathered from the writings to which their stipulations and agreements may be referred.-Bridgeport Land & Imp. Co. v. American Fireproof Steel Car Co., 94 Ala. 596; M. & M. R. R. Co. v. Gilmer, 85 Ala. 423, 434; Walker v. Struve, 70 Ala. 167; Robbins v. Webb, 68 Ala. 398; Collins v. Whigham, 58 Ala. 440; Byrne v. Marshall, 44 Ala. 357. A good illustration of the rule as applicable to the case in hand, is that of Roberts v. The Chenango M. Ins. Co., 3 Hill, 501, where a policy of insurance was made by using a form printed on the half of an entire sheet of paper; and on the other half sheet, therg was a printed statement, commencing, ‘ ‘ Conditions of Insurance,” but no express reference was made to this in the body of the policy. The court held, that there was no doubt of the intent that both should be taken together; that the assured accepted the policy, with wliat purported to bo conditions on the same sheet; that there was no need of an express reference by the policy to the conditions, in order to fix the meaning, and that the juxtaposition of the papers was a sufficient prima facie expression, subject to be rebutted by parol evidence, that they were connected by mistake. In the Ala Gold Life Ins. Co. v. Thomas, 74 Ala. 578, 582, the indorsements and the policies on which they were made, were construed together as a whole. It may be said, then, that where reference is made in one paper to another, they are to be construed together • as as a whole, when, legally, the papers constitute one entire transaction, as they most frequently do in a policy of life insurance, the application therefor and indorsements there[464]*464on.-Ala. Gold L. Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 80 Ala. 467, 471. They need not be physically attached.

On each of the policies in hand, there was entered on the margin in writing or printing, the words, “This policy shall not take effect, until the first premium thereon shall have been paid to the company, or to some person authorized by the company to receive it, while the insured is in good health, and in accordance with the health certificate and premium receipt accompanying the same.”

Again the insured, in making his application for these policies, signed an agreement as part of his application, as follows : “I hereby warrant and agree, * * * * that the statements and answers to the printed questions above, together with this declaration, [containing other agreements], as well as those made tq the company’s medical examiner, shall constitute the application, and be the basis of this contract.”

Further still, to make^the intention of the parties even more manifest and indubitable, in accepting the policies, the insured signed another paper, or certificate, provided on the face of the policies themselves to be signed, in which he states, in consideration of the issuance and delivery of said policies, respectively, to him, “I hereby certify, declare, and warrant in consideration of the delivery to me of said policy, * * * that the statements herein, [touching his health and habits] are, and that the statements in the original application were, when made, in all respects true, otherwise the insurance will be void.” Italics ours.

In this case it thus appears, the contract of the parties as averred in said pleas, consisted of three writings to which their statements and agreements are necessarily referable, namely, the original application for insurance, made to the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. ; the policies of insurance themselves, and the health certificate. From these papers, there can remain no doubt of the intent of the parties, that they should be taken and construed together, as if there were but one paper embodying the provisions and conditions of each. When so construed, we are constrained to hold, that when the insured, in his application for insurance, made the statement that he had never applied to any company or agent for insurance, without receiving a policy of the exact kind and amount applied for and that there were no negotia[465]*465tions for insurance then pending, he warranted his answer to be true, otherwise, as agreed in his certificate on receiving the policies, the insurance was to be void. This agreement was not a simple representation of the fact he averred, to be held of no vitiating effect, if untrue or immaterial; but a warranty as plain as words can create one, and on the truth of which the vitality of the policies were made to depend.

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Bluebook (online)
113 Ala. 453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelly-v-life-insurance-clearing-co-ala-1896.