Modern Brotherhood of America v. Nyiry

8 Ohio App. 92, 29 Ohio C.C. Dec. 32, 27 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 219, 27 Ohio C.A. 219, 1917 Ohio App. LEXIS 276
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 2, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 8 Ohio App. 92 (Modern Brotherhood of America v. Nyiry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Modern Brotherhood of America v. Nyiry, 8 Ohio App. 92, 29 Ohio C.C. Dec. 32, 27 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 219, 27 Ohio C.A. 219, 1917 Ohio App. LEXIS 276 (Ohio Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Lieghley, J.

The parties stood in reverse order in the court below, and for convenience will be mentioned herein as they were below.

The plaintiff brought suit in the common pleas court upon a benefit certificate of the defendant company for the sum of $1,000, which covered the life of her husband, John Nyiry. Trial was had in the court of common pleas, which resulted in a judgment for plaintiff, from which judgment error was prosecuted to the court of appeals, and upon due consideration thereof the court of appeals reversed the judgment on the weight of the evidence and entered final judgment. Error was prosecuted to the supreme court of Ohio, which resulted in an affirmance of that part of the judgment of the court of appeals reversing the case on the weight of the evidence, and a reversal of that part in which it undertook to render final judgment. The case was remanded to the court of common pleas for further proceedings. The cause again-came on-for trial in the common pleas, and resulted in a verdict for plaintiff, upon which judgment was entered, from which judgment error is prosecuted to this court to reverse the same.

It appears from the record that the deceased was examined in August, 1910, by Dr. Evans, who found him suffering from enlarged spleen and liver, and again examined in March, 1911, at which time the doctor found him afflicted in the same manner, but with the disease somewhat progressed. [94]*94The deceased took sick about January 26, 1911, afflicted with cirrhosis of the liver and a general dropsical condition. He was taken to the hospital and there examined by other doctors, who made the same diagnosis of his condition. The doctor who examined him in January declared that he was in the tertiary stage; that the disease is divided into three stages, primary, secondary and tertiary; and that the disease had progressed to the most advanced stage. The doctors agree that considerable time is required for the development of this disease to the stage in which they found him upon examination. In the early part of March he was in Lakeside Hospital and was examined by the house physicians. These doctors were called, and testified as to the advanced stage of his disease, and that the deceased had told them that he had been suffering for over eight months therefrom. The proof is overwhelming, when the testimony of the doctors and those who are presumed to know is considered, that the deceased in December, 1910, and theretofore, was afflicted with the disease of which he died about May 29, 1911.

. In the early part of December, 1910, the deceased was an applicant to membership in the society of defendant. The application is a part of the policy, and contains questions propounded to the applicant and his answers thereto recorded, which are made warranties of the truthfulness thereof by the terms of the contract.

In the answer filed by defendant it is claimed that said application contains the following question: “When and by what physician were you last attended and for what complaint?” That the answer [95]*95recorded thereto is “No.” And the defendant claims that the answer to this question was false and untrue, and, being a warranty, defeats plaintiff’s right of recovery.

A reply was filed thereto by the plaintiff in which facts are plead to the effect that said question was never propounded to the applicant and the answer not given. Facts are plead in the reply which it is claimed constitute an estoppel.

Plaintiff sought to verify her position and more solidly establish her right to recover by calling a large number of witnesses to testify as to the physical appearance and condition of the applicant at or about the time the certificate was issued. However, these witnesses could only testify as to appearances at that time, and were not such as were thoroughly qualified to pass upon the fact of whether or not the applicant was diseased in the manner overwhelmingly established by the medical proof in the case and the circumstances and facts developed by the proof.

The state of the evidence has not been changed in any respect from what it was when the case was formerly here for review; with this exception, that the jury was requested by interrogatory to answer the following question: “Did the examining physician for the defendant when he prepared the application of John Nyiry, ask of him the following question: When and by what physician were you last attended and for what complaint ?’ ” To which question the jury answered: “John Nyiry was not asked the following question: When and by what physician were you last attended and for wh&t complaint ?’ ”

[96]*96The force of this interrogatory and answer thereto is rendered negligible by the state of the proof. The physician who examined him as an applicant testified that he did not ask that exact question; that he used the word “doctor” for “physician,” and the word “sickness” for “complaint,” in order that he might the better reach the understanding of the applicant. He gave the exact substance of the question, but not the exact words. In short, the request for special finding submitted to the jury was not based upon the state of the proof in the case, and the jury truthfully could only answer “No,” for the defendant was not claiming that the question in the exact words was submitted; but it claimed at all times, and proved, that the whole substance and the exact meaning of the question was put to the applicant. So that the special finding of the jury after all presents a new fact, but one of little or no probative value.

We have therefore reached the conclusion that the state of the evidence is the same now as it was when the case was here before for review, and that the judgment of the court below should be reversed on the weight of the evidence, unless the established law of the state precludes us from a judgment of reversal.

Section 11577, General Code, reads sis follows:

“The same court shall not grant more than one new trial on the weight of the evidence against the same party in the same case, nor shall the same court grant more than one judgment of reversal on the weight of the evidence against the same party in the same case.”

[97]*97This section was formerly Section 5306, Revised Statutes, and received judicial interpretation in the case of The Columbus St. Ry. Co. v. Pace, 68 Ohio St., 200, the syllabus of which reads as follows:

“The provision in Section 5306, Revised Statutes, that: ‘The same court shall not grant more than one new trial on the weight of the evidence against the same party in the same case;’ has special and exclusive application to trial courts, and such provision does not operate as a limitation upon the power of the circuit court, as a court of error, to reverse a case any number of times, on the ground that the verdict of the jury in the trial court was against the weight of the evidence.”

In the opinion, Crew, J., at page 209, says as follows:

“It was doubtless the design and purpose of the legislature by the enactment of Section 5306, Revised Statutes, to thereby restrain the unlimited discretion of trial courts over verdicts of juries, whose peculiar province it is under our system of jurisprudence, to determine the facts.

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11 Ohio App. 410 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Ohio App. 92, 29 Ohio C.C. Dec. 32, 27 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 219, 27 Ohio C.A. 219, 1917 Ohio App. LEXIS 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/modern-brotherhood-of-america-v-nyiry-ohioctapp-1917.