Meyer v. Johnson

46 P.2d 822, 7 Cal. App. 2d 604, 1935 Cal. App. LEXIS 786
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 14, 1935
DocketCiv. No. 9024
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 46 P.2d 822 (Meyer v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meyer v. Johnson, 46 P.2d 822, 7 Cal. App. 2d 604, 1935 Cal. App. LEXIS 786 (Cal. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

ROTH, J., pro tem.

This is an action in which appellants, as plaintiffs, seek to recover the proceeds of two several life insurance policies issued April 21, 1926, and delivered April 28, 1926, on the life of Hazel Edna Johnson, deceased, the insured. Plaintiffs are the mother of the deceased, as administratrix of her estate, and the minor son of deceased by a former marriage. Defendant Granville William Johnson, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was the husband of deceased and the beneficiary named in the policies. Within a few days after the policies were issued, deceased, her minor son and defendant started on an automobile trip to Missouri, and while in the state of Arizona, the husband, on May 2, 1926, killed the deceased, and was subsequently tried and convicted of murder. He is now serving a term of life imprisonment. On April 27, 1928, plaintiffs brought the instant action. At the time of the first trial, respondent insurance company (hereinafter referred to as respondent), one of the defendants herein, objected to the introduction of any evidence, on the theory that plaintiffs could state no cause of action. The objection was sustained and judgment subsequently entered against the plaintiffs. This judgment was reversed (Meyer v. Johnson, 115 Cal. App. 646 [2 Pac. (2d) 456], and the cause sent back for trial, the appellate court holding that since the beneficiary named in the policy murdered the insured, he was disqualified to take, but that the heirs at law of the insured had a right to maintain an action on the policies in question. The status of plaintiffs as heirs at law is conceded. Respondent’s defense, sue[608]*608cessfully urged at the second trial, from which this appeal arises, briefly stated, is that the policies were in fact never issued or delivered, inasmuch as defendant made application for the same, without any authorization from his wife, for the sole purpose of perpetrating the crime he subsequently committed, in order to collect the insurance.

An analysis of the evidence discloses that one Starr, soliciting agent for the respondent, commenced to talk insurance with defendant the latter part of February, 1926, first with reference to the life of defendant and later, during the course of the negotiations, according to the testimony of Starr, because of defendant’s stomach trouble, it was decided that the life insurance be taken out on the life of deceased. After approximately six weeks of contact between defendant and Starr, two blank applications were handed to defendant, who subsequently returned them to Starr, one completed in pencil in the handwriting of deceased (according to the testimony of defendant), and the other in blank, except for the signature of deceased in ink. The penciled application was either lost or destroyed by Starr, it being definitely established at the trial that it was not available. The application of the deceased signed in ink was completed by Starr from the information contained in the penciled application, and the signature of deceased witnessed by Starr, although he subsequently testified he did not actually see deceased sign, and further that he never saw deceased at all, since he conducted all of his negotiations with defendant. At the trial the father, mother and cousin of deceased, all of whom were properly qualified, testified that the ink signature signed in blank to the application which was filled in by Starr and ultimately filed with respondent was the signature of deceased. The defendant, in a deposition introduced at the trial, testified to the same effect. The only contrary evidence was the testimony of a handwriting expert, who said that the writing was that of defendant and not that of deceased. Upon such conflicting evidence, the trial court found: “ ... said name of Hazel Edna Johnson was forged by Granville William Johnson . . . without knowledge to defendant New York Life Insurance Company; . . . that the policies of insurance . . . were prepared and signed ... in the belief that said application for said policies was signed by the insured . . . that [609]*609said defendant New York Life Insurance Company relied on the statements contained in said application ...”

Since there is credible evidence to sustain the trial court’s finding, it would not ordinarily be disturbed. It and other findings of a like tenor are sufficient, in the absence of other circumstances, to sustain the judgment that no policies were validly issued.

Upon the foregoing résumé, the findings of the trial court would be unquestionably decisive. Certain uncontradicted and uncontroverted facts, however, compel and impel us to view the matter from a different perspective and to reach a different conclusion.

The application for the policies in this case, as is true with most such applications, is in two parts, one of which is the proposal to take life insurance or the part which contains the disputed signature, and the other the medical examination of the deceased, which likewise called for the signature of the deceased. The medical portion of the application is signed by the insured, there being no controversy on this point. The policies recite, on their faces: “The policy and application therefor, a copy of which is attached hereto, constitute the entire contract. ’ ’ As a matter of fact, as well as of law, it is apparent, therefore, that the- whole application was necessary to constitute the contract. (Westphall v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 27 Cal. App. 734 [151 Pac. 159]; Paulhamus v. Security Life & Ann. Co., 163 Fed. 554; Goodwin v. Provident Sav. Life Assur. Soc., 97 Iowa, 226 [66 N. W. 157, 59 Am. St. Rep. 411, 32 L. R. A. 473]; Morris v. State Mutual Life Assur. Co., 183 Pa. 563 [39 Atl. 52]; Keller v. Home Life Ins. Co., 95 Mo. App. 627 [69 S. W. 612]; Holden v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 11 App. Div. 426 [42 N. Y. Supp. 310]; Dimick v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 69 N. J. L. 384 [55 Atl. 291, 62 L. R. A. 774]; Ames v. Manhattan Life Ins. Co., 31 App. Div. 180 [52 N. Y. Supp. 759] [affirmed 167 N. Y. 584]; Weisguth v. Supreme Tribe of Ben Hur, 272 Ill. 541 [112 N. E. 350].)

The trial court found as a fact that the deceased was “examined by Doctor Richard C. McCloskey, a medical examiner of defendant New York Life Insurance Company, and on or about said date signed in her own handwriting the answers to medical examiner on the form provided by defendant New York Life Insurance Company and as set forth in [610]*610plaintiffs’ Exhibit i; ” Starr persistently denied that he had had any contact with the deceased, although defendant asserted in his deposition that Starr had had at least two personal interviews with deceased with reference to the policies. Starr, however, admitted that at the time the application was made, respondent had in its employ an inspector, as distinguished from a medical examiner, when he turned in his request for medical examination; with reference to which phase of the matter Starr testified in part as follows: 11Q. Who, if anyone, other than Mr. Johnson, negotiated with you or had anything to do with the issuance of these policies? A. So far as I was concerned, only Mr. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson was examined by the doctor and also seen by our inspector. That was a conclusion that I would naturally draw. Q. It was a conclusion and not a statement of fact? A.

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Bluebook (online)
46 P.2d 822, 7 Cal. App. 2d 604, 1935 Cal. App. LEXIS 786, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meyer-v-johnson-calctapp-1935.