Home/Supreme Court of Pennsylvania/Piccinini v. Teachers Protective Mutual Life Insurance

Piccinini v. Teachers Protective Mutual Life Insurance

463 A.2d 1017, 316 Pa. Super. 519, 1983 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3284
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 17, 1983
Docket1578 and 1647
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 463 A.2d 1017 (Piccinini v. Teachers Protective Mutual Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Piccinini v. Teachers Protective Mutual Life Insurance, 463 A.2d 1017, 316 Pa. Super. 519, 1983 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3284 (Pa. 1983).

Opinion

McEWEN, Judge:

This is a consolidated appeal from an order entered following a non-jury trial in favor of plaintiff Leo Piccinini, the insured under a health and accident policy issued by the defendant insurer, Teachers Protective Mutual Life Insur-. anee Company (Teachers). Teachers has appealed the award of compensatory damages in favor of Piccinini in the amount of $27,783.40 plus interest and costs, asserting that it, the insurer, was entitled to avoid its obligations under the policy. Piccinini also appeals and asserts error in the failure of the trial court to award punitive damages. We decide that the uncontroverted evidence established, as a matter of law, that Piccinini had fraudulently obtained the insurance policy by misrepresenting his medical condition in the application for insurance and, accordingly, we reverse.

In October of 1976, Piccinini, a fifty-six year old cement finisher, filed an application for accident and health insurance with Teachers in which he made certain representations concerning the condition of his health. Piccinini, who was born in the United States and had an eighth grade education, completed the application with the assistance of his nephew who was an independent insurance broker. The nephew read each of the questions on the application in its entirety to Piccinini before eliciting any response from Piccinini. The application contains the signature of Piccinini and he concedes that his nephew accurately reported his responses to the questions on the application. That application form, as answered by Piccinini, appears in the record as follows:

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463 A.2d 1017, 316 Pa. Super. 519, 1983 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/piccinini-v-teachers-protective-mutual-life-insurance-pa-1983.