Life & Casualty Insurance v. Ayers

281 S.W.2d 75, 39 Tenn. App. 59, 1954 Tenn. App. LEXIS 157
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 25, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 281 S.W.2d 75 (Life & Casualty Insurance v. Ayers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Life & Casualty Insurance v. Ayers, 281 S.W.2d 75, 39 Tenn. App. 59, 1954 Tenn. App. LEXIS 157 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

CARNEY, J.

This is an appeal-in-error from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, awarding plaintiff below, Mrs. Viola Ayers, a judgment for $500 on an industrial insurance policy for complete and permanent loss of plaintiff’s right foot.

Plaintiff contended that she was engaged as a carpenter helping her husband in the construction of a new house when she stepped back into a hole in the floor left for the purpose of installing a floor furnace, and injured her right leg in such a manner that traumatic arthritis developed, resulting in the complete and permanent loss of the use of said right leg and right foot. The policy sued on was issued and delivered on May 19, 1952, and the accident is alleged to have occurred on or about July 1,1952.

The defendant, insurance company, denied liability substantially on the following grounds:

“(1) That the plaintiff did not receive the fall and injury as contended by her.
“(2) That the plaintiff’s damages to her foot were not the sole result of accidental injuries, if she did receive such fall and that she did not have traumatic arthritis.
[61]*61“ (3) That the plaintiff had been guilty of fraud in the procurement of such insurance policy in that she gave false answers on the application by giving negative answers concerning her confinement in the hospital, treatment for her enumerated diseases, including paralysis, and that at the time of the signing of said application on May 5, 1952, the plaintiff had been in at least three hospitals complaining of, among other things, paralysis of her right hand and right leg. ’ ’

The application was not made a part of nor attached to the policy, and paragraph 2 of the Standard Provisions of said Policy provided as follows:

“No statement made by the applicant for insurance not included herein shall avoid the Policy or be used in any legal proceeding hereunder.”

The case was tried to a jury and the Trial Court submitted to the jury three issues of fact, which issues and the finding of the jury thereon are as follows:

“(1) Did the plaintiff wilfully and fraudulently give false answers and misleadm# the insurance company at the time the application for insurance was . signed and at the time the Proof of Loss was filled out? Answer: No.
“(2) Did the plaintiff give written notice of the accident to the Insurance Company twenty days after duly 1, 1952, or if it was not reasonably possible to give such notice, then was notice given as soon as reasonably possible? Answer: Yes.
“ (3) Does the plaintiff now have complete paralysis of the right leí and foot due solely to an accident sustained after the Policy issued? Answer: Yes.”

Upon the verdict of the jury the Trial Judge entered judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $500.

[62]*62After motion for a new trial was seasonably filed and overruled, plaintiff-in-error has filed three Assignments of Error in this canse:

“(1) It was error for the Trial Jndge to refuse to sustain the motion of the plaintiff-in-error made at the conclusion of all the evidence, for a directed verdict in its favor.
“(2) There was no material evidence to support the jury’s finding in issue No. 1 that the plaintiff did not wilfully and fraudulently mislead the defendant at the time the application was signed and thereafter in the Proof of Loss.
(3) It was error for the Trial Judge not to grant a continuance as the defendant had a doctor who was a material witness that was out of town on the day of trial.”

Assignment of Error #3 relating to the refusal of the Trial Court to grant a continuance due to the absence of the defendant’s witness, Dr. Byron S. Talley, must be overruled. The testimony of Dr. Talley would have related only to plaintiff’s physical condition; he saw and examined her only once; a letter was by consent introduced showing what his testimony would have been; his testimony was merely cumulative to that of defendant’s witness, Dr. J. 0. Gfordon, and it does not appear that the Trial Court abused his discretion in refusing’ to grant the motion of defendant for a continuance. Northcross v. Taylor, 29 Tenn. App. 438, 197 S. W. (2d) 9.

We next consider Assignment of Error #2 that there was no material evidence to support the jury’s finding on issue No. 1 that the plaintiff did not wilfully and fraudulently mislead the defendant at the time the application was signed and thereafter in the Proof of [63]*63Loss. The plaintiff is a woman of very limited educational advantages, having been only to the Third G-rade, and she testified that she did not fill ont either the application or Proof of Loss, bnt that the same were filled ont by the Company’s agent, who wrote the insurance; that she did not read the application as filled ont, and that the agent did not ask her anything except in substance if she was in good health, which she thought she was, and in which she was corroborated by her neighbor, the witness, Emily Owens.

The 'Company’s agent, O'. M. Demuth, testified that he himself filled in the application and that he customarily asked the applicants their name, age, and “in order to save time, if the person being insured has ever suffered any serious disease or is now under the care of a doctor for a serious disease — that covers everything — if they have ever been rejected by an insurance company. If they have been rejected usually we cannot give them a policy unless they have got over the trouble, whatever it was.” The agent also said that he would not say that the plaintiff read the policy over, though frequently some people did. The agent also testified that he approached Mrs. Ayers about insurance: “Usually people have to sell some of them on the idea of insurance. I explained the policy. She said she would be willing to buy it.” The application was written up and completed at the home of plaintiff.

The Proof of Loss filed by plaintiff and which was filled out by the Company’s agent, Demuth, dated December 10, 1952, recites that plaintiff had not been confined in a hospital. Plaintiff insisted that she told the agent that she had been to the hospital.

Hospital records showed that the plaintiff was in St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, from November [64]*649, 1947, to November 13, 1947, and the final diagnosis as shown by the hospital records was hysteria manifested by blindness in left eye, and backache and psychonenrosis.

The records of John Gaston Hospital of Memphis, Tennessee, showed that the plaintiff came to the out-patient clinic in April 1950 stating that the paralysis in the right arm was improving. The hospital record referred to the fact that a year ago plaintiff’s brother’s body was being-brought back from overseas, and that another brother also killed overseas was to be brought back within the next few weeks. The hospital records showed that the plaintiff was worrying considerably over this trouble and was advised not to attend the funeral. The hospital records also showed that some four years before the plaintiff had been at John Gaston Hospital making similar complaints of paralysis in the right hand and leg. The diagnosis by the hospital interns was chronic psychoneurosis.

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Bluebook (online)
281 S.W.2d 75, 39 Tenn. App. 59, 1954 Tenn. App. LEXIS 157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/life-casualty-insurance-v-ayers-tennctapp-1954.