Mutual Life Insurance v. Witte

67 So. 263, 190 Ala. 327, 1914 Ala. LEXIS 669
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 7, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 67 So. 263 (Mutual Life Insurance v. Witte) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mutual Life Insurance v. Witte, 67 So. 263, 190 Ala. 327, 1914 Ala. LEXIS 669 (Ala. 1914).

Opinion

MAYFIELD, J.

The action is on a life insurance policy. The insurance company interposed 18 pleas— the general issue and 17 special pleas. The special pleas were of two classes; one class setting up false and fraudulent representations by the insured, made with the intent to deceive, in obtaining the policy, and the second class setting up false representations by the insured in obtaining the policy sued on, which representations, being false, increased the risk.'

The pleas were thus confessedly framed under each of the two alternatives contained in section 4572 of the Code, which section reads as follows:

“No written or oral misrepresentation, or warranty therein made, in the negotiation of a contract or policy of life insurance, or in the application therefor or proof of loss thereunder, shall defeat or void the policy, or prevent its attaching, unless such misrepresentation is made with actual intent to deceive, or unless the matter misrepresented increase the risk of loss.”

A great number of pleas, similar to the ones in question, were construed with reference to this and other sections of the Code in the cases of Insurance Co. v. Allen, 174 Ala. 517, 56 South. 568, and Insurance Co. v. Gee, 171 Ala. 435, 55 South. 166. It is therefore unnecessary to restate the rules as to the sufficiency of such pleas in cases like this ; it being both apparent and conceded that the pleas were proved with special reference to the pleas and the opinions and decisions in those two cases.

The trial court sustained demurrers to pleas 2, 6, 10, 12, and 14, and overruled demurrers to pleas 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9,11,13, 15,17, and 18.

(1, 2) There was no error in sustaining demurrer to any one of the pleas. They were each defective under [330]*330the rules declared in Allen’s Case, supra, and Gee’s Case, supra. Each was bad for one or more of the following reasons: Being too indefinite and uncertain in averment to show wherein the alleged representations were false. No definite and material issue of fact could be taken thereon. For example, some alleged that the insured represented that his health was good from infancy, when in fact it was not always good, and he was in failing health due to a disease unknown to the defendant; and others, after this, alleging that insured had a disease which was unknown, yet averring that the unknown disease increased the risk. Such pleas, of course, were self-contradictory. If a disease was unknown, how could it be known to be one which increased the risk? How was it possible for the plaintiff to disprove this plea, except to prove that the insured never, in his lifetime, had any disease known to the nomenclature of medical science? Courts will not enter upon such inquiries.

(3) An important requisite in all pleading is certainty. The matter pleaded ought to be clearly and distinctly stated, so that it may be fully understood by the adverse party, by counsel, and toy the jury and the judges.

(4) There was no error in sustaining demurrer to any of the other pleas, which did not contain the defect as to uncertainty. They were each bad nnder the rules declared in Allen’s and Gee’s Cases, supra. Moreover, if there could be said to.be any technical error in any one of the rulings on these pleas, it is made to appear beyond doubt that no possible injury did or could result from such ruling, for the reason that the other pleas, as to which the demurrers were overruled, set up the identical defense attempted to be set up in these pleas. All the legitimate proof which could have been offered [331]*331under any one of these pleas, as to which demurrers were sustained, could have been offered under one or another of the numerous pleas; as to which demurrers were overruled.

There was no error in refusing the general affirmative charge to the defendant, upon the whole case, or as to any one of the many pleas. The mere fact that insured died of consumption did not prove that he had the disease when he was insured. The evidence falls far short of showing that he did have such disease, or any other disease, when he made the application for insurance. The proof as to any one of the pleas was clearly a question for the jury.

(5) There was no error in refusing charge 21, to the effect that, if the jury believed from the evidence that the defendant had proved any one of its pleas, their verdict should be for the defendant. A litigant has no right to require a jury to go through all the pleadings in a case like this, and to sort out those as to which demurrers were sustained, and those as to which they were overruled, and to say whether this one or'that one was proved. For example, in this case, there were in the file some pleas as to which demurrers were sustained, and hence no issue was found as to these pleas; yet this charge would have authorized, if it did not require, the jury to find for the defendant, if they believed that plea 2, 6, 10, 12, or 14 was proven. This charge, in the case, might have misled the jury, if it had not been otherwise bad.

(6) It was not error to refuse to allow proof, by hearsay testimony, as to ivhether or not the insured’s mother died of pulmonary tuberculosis.

(7) There was no error in declining to allow proof that insured was engaged in work which was conducive to tuberculosis, nor that he was subject or liable to con[332]*332tract such a disease, nor that he was in a weak and debilitated condition after the policy was issued, unless it had been shoAvn, or offered to be shown, that he Avas in such condition when the application for insurance was made, and that it had continued. It must be expected, in all life insurance policies or contracts, that the insured will thereafter get weak, feeble, and debilitated, and indeed the contract itself provides for his death thereafter.

(8, 9) There was no error in declining to allow the defendant to prove by the witness Stringfellow that insured wrote him a letter stating that he was ill and desired to apply for indemnity in consequence thereof, under an accident insurance policy which the insured had with another company. This was res inter alios acta. It might have opened up a flood of evidence as to whether or not insured had such a policy, whether or not he wrote the letter in question, and whether the stater ments therein were true or false. The trial court properly declined to go into these inquiries. If the insured had testified as a witness, this proof might have been admissible, after proper predicates, to contradict or discredit his evidence; but he was not' a witness, and could not affirm, deny, or explain the transactions with this accident company. If it had been conceded that insured had such a policy, and wrote such letter, and thereafter made out a claim, on the ground of illness, for compensation under such accident policy, the question would be before us as to the admission of the letter and the application for compensation. But it is not now before us. As to these matters the transcript contains the following recitals: “The defendant then asked the witness this question, ‘Did Mr. Witte make any claim of you under that policy?’ The plaintiff objected to this question, and it was not passed on by the court. The witness testified that the claim was in writing, and the defendant [333]

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Bluebook (online)
67 So. 263, 190 Ala. 327, 1914 Ala. LEXIS 669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mutual-life-insurance-v-witte-ala-1914.