Mrs. Myrtle H. Trawick v. The Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New York, New York

484 F.2d 535, 17 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1429, 1973 U.S. App. LEXIS 7969
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 10, 1973
Docket72-1706
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 484 F.2d 535 (Mrs. Myrtle H. Trawick v. The Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New York, New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mrs. Myrtle H. Trawick v. The Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New York, New York, 484 F.2d 535, 17 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1429, 1973 U.S. App. LEXIS 7969 (5th Cir. 1973).

Opinions

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge:

This suit by the widow and beneficiary of Harrison Trawick for death benefits from two insurance policies on his life is on its second journey to this court. Our opinion on the first appeal is Trawick v. Manhattan Life Ins. Co., 447 F.2d 1293 (C.A.5,1971).

In his applications for insurance Tra-wick had misrepresented his physical condition. The central issue in this litigation became whether the insurer, Manhattan, issued the policies despite its knowledge of the applicant’s prior history of heart disease. At the first trial there was a jury verdict for plaintiff, but judgment n. o. v. was granted for Manhattan on the basis that the undisputed evidence showed that it had no actual knowledge of Trawick’s heart condition. We reversed and remanded for a new trial. On remand, at the second trial, a jury again returned a verdict for the plaintiff. Manhattan again appeals. We affirm.

1.

A major contention of appellant is that the prior decision of this court was wrong and should be overruled. No val[537]*537id reason is shown why we should depart from the law of the case, and, in fact, we agree with the earlier decision.

The trial court considered and denied Manhattan’s motions for judgment n. 0. v. and for a new trial based on the alleged insufficiency of the evidence. We agree with the District Judge’s ruling.

2.

The only point which justifies discussion is defendant’s claim that the court reversibly erred in denying it the right to reargue to the jury when the court, after oral argument, gave and then withdrew an erroneous instruction which had been requested by defendant. The starting point for disposition of this issue is an analysis of our prior decision. We then held that there was sufficient evidence of information in the possession of Manhattan prior to issuance of the policies to justify a jury finding that Manhattan knew of the insured’s heart condition. Alternatively we concluded that if arguendo the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of actual knowledge in the sense of awareness by the insurer of the content of the information in its files which it had obtained pursuant to an independent investigation of the insured’s condition, it was charged with knowledge of such information.

There were several critical pieces of evidence which the jury could have found were the source of knowledge by the company, actual or imputed, prior to the time it issued the policies. It was undisputed that prior to issuance Manhattan had in its files various information which Judge Goldberg described in the prior opinion. There was, however, a conflict in the evidence concerning whether, prior to issuance, the company had in its possession the applicant’s hospital records from St. Dominic’s Hospital. In his order denying the post-trial motions of defendant after the second trial, the District Judge described the contents of these records:

The hospital records of St. Dominic’s unmistakably involved all the facts and circumstances in one small jacket file to the effect that Harrison Tra-wick had been hospitalized there for treatment for a very serious heart condition prior to his application for these policies of insurance on his life.

In our prior opinion we held:

[T]he record reveals that reasonable and fair-minded men could have concluded from sharply conflicting evidence that the defendant prior to the issuance of the policies possessed hospital records of the insured which contained (1) a diagnosis of “arterio-sclerotic heart disease with angina pectoris,” (2) electrocardiogram readings showing abnormality of the heart muscle, and (3) a family history revealing that the father and two brothers of the insured died of heart trouble.

447 F.2d at 1296. The “sharply conflicting” evidence to which the opinion referred came about in this manner. By interrogatory plaintiff requested the insurance company to give the names of doctors and hospitals that had furnished to it past medical data on the applicant and the dates the data was received. Manhattan’s answer in narrative form said, inter alia, “The defendant secured information relative to Mr. Trawick’s past medical history from Dr. Gayden Ward, Dr. Temple Ainsworth, St. Dominic’s Hospital, Retail Credit Company, and the Medical Information Bureau before the policies were issued.” (emphasis added). In mid-trial, after it became apparent that the contents of the hospital records were damaging to its position, the company asked leave to amend the answer by deleting the name of St. Dominic’s from the above-quoted sentence, on the ground that through error it had answered erroneously and that in truth it had not received any records from St. Dominic’s. The court refused to permit the amendment. It had, however, allowed Manhattan to introduce oral testimony to the effect that it had [538]*538received no records from St. Dominic’s and that the name of the hospital as a source of information had been included in the answer through error.

On remand and prior to the second trial, the court allowed the defendant to amend its answer to the interrogatory so as to delete St. Dominic’s Hospital as a source of information. The effect of this was to deny that any records had ever been received from the hospital. At trial both the original and the amended answers were read into evidence. The officer of Manhattan who had sworn to the original answer to interrogatories testified orally that there was nothing in the company’s files from St. Dominic’s prior to issuance of the policies.

The hospital’s director of medical records testified that Trawick’s only admission to the hospital had been in 1963 (five years before the issuance of the policies), and that all his medical records were kept in a single folder which would be the only record available to an insurance company seeking medical information on him.1

The defendant in writing requested the following charge:

You are instructed that there is no evidence in this case from which you can find that Manhattan Life Insurance Company secured information from St. Dominic Hospital before the death of Harrison Trawick.

The record does not show when the request was made, but the fair inference is that it was timely. The trial judge wrote “Given” on the instruction. What the judge may have said orally to defense counsel is not in the record, but the judge acknowledges that the defendant had a fair expectation that the charge would be given. In his oral charge, after closing arguments, the court gave the instruction, as he had said he would. Upon objection by plaintiff the court recognized its error and, over the objection of defendant, instructed the jury that he withdrew the charge and that the jury should decide under all the evidence whether the company had the information from St. Dominic’s prior to the death of the insured. Defendant then asked the opportunity to reargue the particular point and the court, while stating that it believed defendant had relied on the expectation the charge would be given, denied the request. This denial is asserted as error on appeal.

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Bluebook (online)
484 F.2d 535, 17 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1429, 1973 U.S. App. LEXIS 7969, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mrs-myrtle-h-trawick-v-the-manhattan-life-insurance-company-of-new-york-ca5-1973.