Needham v. American Nat. Ins. Co.

97 S.W.2d 1016
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 10, 1936
DocketNo. 12245
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 97 S.W.2d 1016 (Needham v. American Nat. Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Needham v. American Nat. Ins. Co., 97 S.W.2d 1016 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

JONES, Chief Justice.

This is a suit by William P. Needham, appellant, against the American National Insurance Company, appellee, to recover damages for the alleged unconditional repudiation of the disability clause in an insurance polic)"' issued to him on August 7, 1924. Under a peremptory instruction by the court, a verdict was returned in favor of appellee, judgment entered in accordance therewith, and appellant has duly perfected an appeal to this court. The following are the necessary facts:

The policy issued insured appellant against death and disability on the payment of a quarterly premium of $8.30. The death benefit under the policy was payable to appellant’s wife. The disability benefits were payable to appellant. The following clauses contain the disability contract of the insurance policy in question:

“AGREES TO PAY — Benefits for Total Permanent Disability. Subject to the conditions and provisions set forth under this heading on . page two hereof, the Company will grant Benefits for Total Permanent Disability, as follows:
“(1) WAIVER OF PREMIUMS — The Company will during the continuance of such disability waive payment of each premium as it thereafter becomes due, commencing with the first premium due after receipt of said due proof of disability.
“(2) LIFE INCOME TO INSURED— Six months after the receipt of said due proof of disability the company will pay to the Insured, if then living and such disability still continues, the sum of Ten Dollars, and a like sum monthly thereafter during the life of the Insured and the continuance of such disability.
“PRIVILEGES AND CONDITIONS— Benefits for Total Permanent Disability. The Company will grant the benefits for total permanent disability set forth' on page one hereafter, only after one full year’s premium shall have been paid and before default in the payment of any subsequent premium hereof, if Insured, prior to obtaining the age of sixty years at nearest birthday and while this policy is in full force, shall furnish due proof to the Company at its Home Office that he has become totally, and permanently disabled by bodily injury or disease, so that he is, and presumably will be permanently, continuously and wholly prevented thereby for life from performing any work for compensation, gain or profit, or from following any gainful occupation, and that such disability has then existed continuously for not less than sixty days, no benefits for such Total Permanent Disability to accrue however prior to the submission of due proof, as above provided.
“Although the proof of total permanent disability may have been accepted by the Company as satisfactory, the Insured shall, at any time thereafter, and from time to time, but not of tener than once a year, on demand, furnish to the Company due proof of the continuance of such disability, and if the Insured shall fail to furnish such proof, or if it shall appear to the Company that the Insured is able to perform any work or follow any occupation whatever for compensation, gain or profit, no further premiums shall be waived and no further income shall be paid.” .

Mrs. Needham, wife of appellant and the beneficiary in the provision of the policy, insuring against the death of appellant, was not made a party to the suit, and the petition alleged that he (appellant) only sought a recovery for damages, based upon the breach by defendant of the disability provision, and that this suit was brought without in any wise affecting the rights of the wife to the death benefit payable to her. A plea in abatement was filed by appellee, on the ground that Mrs. Needham was a necessary party to the suit. This plea was overruled. The quarterly premiums on the policy were regularly paid up to and including April 7, 1930, and the policy was in force at the time appellant was injured.

On April 29, 1930, appellant suffered severe personal injuries while engaged in the duties of his employment with the Texas Power & Light Company, which totally and permanently disabled him, within the provisions of the policy. The injuries were caused by a jack giving way that had raised the rear end of a heavy loaded truck and crushing appellant in the vicinity of his hips between the concrete pavement and the bottom of the truck. Appellant was at once taken to a hospital in the city of Dallas, where he was examined and treated, remaining at the hospital; except on a few short occasions, for a period of approximately one year. Dr. E. E. Thomasson was the attending physician and surgeon, and he described Needham’s condition, in response to questions, as follows:

[1018]*1018“ * * * At the time he (appellant) came to the hospital he was suffering a rather severe shock, and gave a history of having been laying on his side on the pavement and one of these big trucks that they haul the material in had fallen on the opposite hip and crushed him to the street almost, made quite a compression, and fractured his pelvis. It had just jammed one bone in on the other — the one sort of dove-tails in the other and fractured the cross bone in front, both the descending forward and the transverse forward, and fractured the wing of his pelvis and then the transverse process, that is, two little spurs that come out on the last lumbar vertebra. He also had, we catheterized him and found some blood in the bladder, so I made a diagnosis of the ruptured bladder as well, and under novocain, he was too sick to take an anesthetic, and under novocain I opened up the abdomen in the front of the bladder and found quite a catarrhal congestion in the passage. All the left side and tissues about the bladder were all filled with blood and - urine. I don’t think he had emptied his bladder for sometime and when this blow hit him, the urine all went into the tissues. A drain was put in and we put him on what we term a Bradford frame. It is a frame with posts of metal on each side and covered with ducking so he can lay on it and be lifted up and down for his kidneys and bowels to be moved without handling. It immobilizes him. We readjusted the bones the best we could and put him in this frame and then he was kept quiet without turning or moving for I don’t know, something like a .month or six weeks the wound drained — I don’t know for how long, but a long time.
“Some little pieces of bone worked out and, I guess — I don’t know just how long he was in the hospital, but it was off and on for about a year. He was in that time for three or four months and then was out for a while and came back again and about a year later I had to open the bladder again and remove a piece of stone that had formed in the bladder, about the size, a pretty good large stone, and since that time he has had a paralysis of the bladder and urethra, that is, a tube running from the bladder to the outside; he has had absolutely no control of the urine and he has had no elimination, complete paralysis in that * *

Due claim was made by appellant under the provisions of the policy for the $10 monthly remuneration for total and permanent disability. This claim was allowed by appellee, and payment was made to appellant at the rate of $10 per month for twenty-four months, when appellee refused to make further payments and notified appellant of this fact, and the further fact that The quarterly premiums would be charged.

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Bluebook (online)
97 S.W.2d 1016, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/needham-v-american-nat-ins-co-texapp-1936.