McMaster v. New York Life Ins.

99 F. 856, 40 C.C.A. 119, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2795
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 11, 1899
DocketNo. 1,202
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 99 F. 856 (McMaster v. New York Life Ins.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McMaster v. New York Life Ins., 99 F. 856, 40 C.C.A. 119, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2795 (8th Cir. 1899).

Opinions

SAYBQBY, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

This is another attempt to cause prior and contemporaneous parol statements of the terms and legal effect of written agreements to prevail over the plain stipulations of the writings themselves. The argument of the counsel for the plaintiff in error, when reduced to its last analysis, is that because in the parol negotiations which preceded the delivery of the policies in suit the agent of the insurance company informed the deceased that his policies would insure his life for 13 months without the payment of the second annual premiums, and because when he delivered the policies to him he told him that they did so insure him, therefore this preliminary information and this contemporaneous statement must supersede the written contracts, which expressly provide that the policies shall cease to be binding if the second premiums are not paid by January 12, 1895, 12 months and 17 days after the policies were delivered. This proposition, as it affects the policies in this case, was considered, and our decision concerning it was rendered, in a suit in equity to reform these policies, which is reported under the title Insurance Co. v. McMaster, 57 U. S. App. 638, 30 C. C. A. 532, 87 Fed. 63; and the circuit court of appeals for the Sixth circuit has since rendered a like decision, upon a similar state of facts, in McConnell v. Society, 34 C. C. A. 663, 92 Fed. 769. The views expressed in our opinion in the former suit undoubtedly met the approval of the supreme court, for it denied an application to issue a writ of certiorari to review our decision. 171 U. S. 687, 18 Sup. Ct. 944. Our conclusion in the suit in equity was that upon the facts there presented the plaintiff could not recover upon these policies, either at law or in equity. The facts which the court below has found in this case [862]*862do not vary from those presented in the former suit so materially as to warrant a different conclusion here. The only notable difference is that it appears in this case, as it did not in that, that, at the time the policies were delivered, the insured “asked the agent if the policies were as represented, and if they would insure him for the period of thirteen months, to which the agent replied that they did so insure him, and thereupon McMaster paid the agent the full first annual premium or the sum of twenty-one dollars on each policy, and, without reading the policies, he received them and placed theni away. The agent did not in any way attempt to prevent McMaster from reading the policies, and he had the full opportunity for reading them, but in fact did not read them, and accepted them on the statement of the agent of the company as hereinabove set forth,” — and that he believed that the policies would continue in force until 13 months from their date, which was December 18, 1893, although they plainly stated that the second annual premiums would be due on December 12, 1894; that there was only one month’s grace thereafter; that the policies would cease to insure his life if those premiums were not paid within that time; and although on December 11 or December 12, 1894, the collector of the company called on the deceased for these premiums, he declined to pay them, and said he did not think he would renew the insurance; and she told him that he was entitled to one month’s grace, and that, as she understood it, the grace on the second premiums would expire on January 11, 1895. It will be borne in mind that the policies provided that the annual premiums should be paid on December 12th; that they gave one month’s grace; that they were dated on December 18, 1893; that they were delivered and the first premiums were paid on December 26, 1893; and that the insured died on January 18, 1895, — six days after the policies had expired according to their terms. It is also worthy of note that the statement made at the time the policies were delivered was not a representation of any words or terms which the contracts contained, but a mere statement of the legal effect of the policies.

The only question which this new fact that this statement was made when the policies were delivered presents is whether oral statements made by one of the parties to a written contract to the other at the time of its delivery, respecting its terms and their legal effect, or the written terms themselves, constitute the agreement, and that question has been repeatedly answered by the supreme court and by this court. In Thompson v. Insurance Co., 104 U. S. 252, 259, 26 L. Ed. 765, the policy provided that it should be void on the nonpayment of the note taken for the- premium; and the supreme court held that a plea that a parol agreement was made, at the time of the giving and accepting of the policy, that the policy should not become void for the nonpayment of the note, but should only be voidable at the election of the company, was bad. Mr. Justice Bradley said:

“An insurance company may waive a forfeiture, or may agree not to enforce a forfeiture; but a parol agreement, made at tbe time of issuing a policy, contradicting the terms of the policy itself, like any other parol agreement incon[863]*863sistent with a written instrument made contemporary therewith, is void, and cannot be set up to contradict the writing.”

In Insurance Co. v. Henderson, 32 U. S. App. 536, 536, 543, 16 C. C. A. 3n0, 393, 895, 69 Fed. 762, 766, 768, the agent of the company told the insured when he delivered the policy that, “if any one killed him while he was going to and from the city, the policy would cover him,” but the policy expressly excepted “intentional injuries inflicted by the insured or any other person.” The insured was shot from ambush, and this court held, in a suit in equity to reform the policy, that the bill must be dismissed, and declared the law to be that:

“Where the class of risks intended to be insured against is clearly described in the policy, and the assured has a full and fair opportunity to read the instrument, the company will not be bound by representations made by its agent, in good faith, that the policy covers risks that are not in fact within its provisions.”

In Green v. Railway Co., 35 C. C. A. 68, 92 Fed. 873, 877, the plaintiff had signed a final receipt and release of all his claims under a certain contract, before that contract was completed, in reliance upon the statement of the engineer of the railroad company, which was made at the time he signed the release, that it covered nothing but the work already completed. When, however, he sued the company for damages for its refusal to permit him to complete his contract, this court held that the oral statement was incompetent evidence, and that: the final release had discharged the corporation from all liability. We adhere to the conclusion which we reached upon this question after’ a review of these and many other authorities in the suit in equity. Insurance Co. v. McHaster, 87 Fed. 63, 69-72, 30 C. C. A. 532, 57 U. S. App. 688. We there said:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 F. 856, 40 C.C.A. 119, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2795, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcmaster-v-new-york-life-ins-ca8-1899.