Mutual Benefit Life Ins. v. Younger

28 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 368, 1931 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1572

This text of 28 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 368 (Mutual Benefit Life Ins. v. Younger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mutual Benefit Life Ins. v. Younger, 28 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 368, 1931 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1572 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1931).

Opinion

Leach, J.

The petition alleges, in substance, that the plaintiff, The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of New Jersey, is authorized to transact the business of life insurance and disability, insurance and duly licensed by the Superintendent of the State of Ohio to transact said insurance business in this state. That in order that holders of life insurance policies of said company may be indemnified against the loss of earned income by disease or accident to the extent of the premiums on such life insurance policies and also a stipulated monthly income, said company has been and is issuing and, unless prevented by defendant, intends to issue in this state, to such of its policyholders as may desire the same, one of its two forms of disability insurance policies providing for such indemnity.

In the policy designated as Form S-l, said company, in consideration of the premium to be paid by the insured agrees to the extent therein set forth to indemnify the insured against loss of earned income by reason of accidental bodily injury or sickness, and that upon proof within one month after the due date of any premium payable under the provisions of such designated policy of life insurance, that the insured under such policy of life insurance has been totally disabled by reason of accidental bodily injury or sickness, as set forth in such disability policy, said company, during the continuance of such disability, will pay a sum equal to the premiums then due on such disability policy and on such policy of life insurance by crediting the said premiums in the accounts of said company, and that such credits of such premiums shall continue such disability policy and such policy of life insurance for the same time and with the some force and effect as though said payments had been paid in cash when due.

. .The form of policy designated as Form S-2, providing for the payment of premiums and also monthly income, [370]*370contains the said provisions in said policy designated as said S-l, and also the agreement of said company to pay a monthly income of a stipulated amount while the insured under such designated policy of life insurance shall be so totally and permanently disabled.

Both of said forms of disability policies contain the following clause:

“The insured will be regarded as totally disabled when by reason of accidental bodily injury or by sickness, his average monthly earned income for a period of four months has not exceeded one-fourth of his former earned income (averaged monthly for the twelve months immediately preceding such four months) and such disability will be regarded as permanent while the earned monthly income of the insured, on account of such injury or sickness, does not exceed the said one-fourth.”

On March 8, 1929, said company filed said two proposed forms of policies with the Superintendent of Insurance of Ohio. On March 12, 1929, said Superintendent of Insurance notified said company that he had filed said forms of disability policies, and he did not, in said notice or otherwise, disapprove of either of said forms.

On November 15, 1929, the Superintendent of Insurance addressed a written communication to the plaintiff, a copy of which is attached to the petition, marked Exhibit “B,” disapproving said forms and declaring it his purpose to make effective the following definitions of total disability:

“(1) That total disability is incapacity (resulting from bodily injury or disease) to engage in any occupation for remuneration or profit.
“(2) That total disability which has been continuous for a period specified in the provisions (not less than four months nor more than one year) shall be presumed permanent.”

said definitions having been agreed upon and recommended by the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners at the September, 1929, meeting of said body held at Toronto.

Plaintiff avers that neither of said forms of policies so designated “Form S-l” and “Form S-2” violates any provision of law in this state; that defendant, as such Super[371]*371intendent of Insurance, has no authority under the laws of this state to prescribe the forms of such policies or to regulate, control or interfere with the issuing of said disability policies by plaintiff or to decláre the same unlawful or by any action or declaration interefere with the right of plaintiff to issue or its policyholders to accept said disability policies.

Wherefore, plaintiff prays for an order enjoining the defendant from certifying his disapproval of said forms of disability policies and from declaring, proclaiming or publishing his disapproval thereof and from declaring, announcing or publishing that it is unlawful for said company to issue said policies or either of them in this state.

In his answer the defendant says that he is not informed as to the powers and authority of the plaintiff company under the laws of the state of New Jersey, to transact the business of insurance as shown by the provisions of the policies attached to plaintiff’s petition, and prays that plaintiff be required to establish by competent evidence all the conditions precedent to the exercise of the authority, if any it has, to issue policies of insurance containing the said provisions.

This proof the plaintiff has met by its Exhibits No. 22, No. 23 and No. 24.

Further in his answer, defendant denies that, as Superintendent of Insurance of the state of Ohio, he has ever approyed the form or forms of insurance containing the provisions set forth in plaintiff’s petition, and says further that said insurance policy provisions are unlike those issued or which have ever been issued by any other insurance company; and that there is no experience table upon which can be based the cost of the issuance and sale of policies containing the provisions set forth in plaintiff’s petition.

Defendant denies that the aforesaid provisions, construing all their terms and conditions together, constitute disability insurance within the statutes and laws of Ohio. Defendant further alleges that the issuance and sale of policies of insurance containing said provisions are not authorized by the law within the state of Ohio, but are prohibited.

[372]

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Related

State Ex Rel. National Mutual Ins. v. Conn
155 N.E. 138 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1927)
State Ex Rel. National Mutual Ins. v. Conn
157 N.E. 563 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 368, 1931 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mutual-benefit-life-ins-v-younger-ohctcomplfrankl-1931.