Pratt v. Mutual Life Insurance

145 P.2d 113, 157 Kan. 710, 1944 Kan. LEXIS 1
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 22, 1944
DocketNo. 35,940
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 145 P.2d 113 (Pratt v. Mutual Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pratt v. Mutual Life Insurance, 145 P.2d 113, 157 Kan. 710, 1944 Kan. LEXIS 1 (kan 1944).

Opinions

[711]*711The opinion of the court was delivered by

Smith, J.:

This is an action to recover money and for injunctive relief. Judgment was for the defendant. Plaintiff appeals.

After the formal allegations, the petition alleged that on November 19,1927, while plaintiff was a resident of Oklahoma, and relying on representations of defendant’s agents, he made application for an ordinary life insurance policy with double indemnity for death by accident and increasing total and permanent disability benefits; that on November 25, 1927, an ordinary life policy was issued to plaintiff by which defendant insured the life of plaintiff for $5,000 or $10,000 for accidental death and agreed further that if plaintiff became totally and permanently disabled before becoming sixty years of age to pay him $50 per month. The petition then referred to a provision in the policy, as follows:

“The share of the divisible surplus accruing on this Policy shall be alloted as a dividend annually on each anniversary of its date, the first such dividend being payable only if any premium due on the first anniversary be duly paid.”

The petition then alleged that for a long time prior to the issuance of the policy defendant’s agents, being duly authorized to do so, made statements to plaintiff that of the total premium to be paid on this policy $115.70 was for ordinary life, $5 was for double indemnity and $17 was for disability; that these amounts were more than the actual cost of the insurance and each year there would be dividends to be disposed of at the option of the plaintiff; that if plaintiff would permit these dividends at the rate defendant was then paying to be retained by the company, plaintiff’s policy would be paid up in twenty-three years; that the annual dividend would be determined from the profits on all ordinary life policies (whether containing disability or double indemnity benefits or not); that defendant furnished to its agents a booklet, which purported to show the results of paying the dividends in cash or permitting them to be retained by the company and that this booklet classified ordinary life policy contracts with and without disability benefits in the same class. The petition then alleged that from the time plaintiff’s policy was issued until 1937, defendant made no distinction in the determination of dividends from its divisible surplus between ordinary life policies with the special benefits and those without them', and each year from 1929 to 1936 it credited plaintiff with dividends of never more than $39.94 and never less than $30.22; that for the [712]*712years 1937 to 1939, inclusive, the defendant credited plaintiff’s policy with dividends as follows: For 1937, $18.80; for 1938, $16.27; for 1939, $7.60, or a total of $42.67, while for the same years the dividends credited to policies without disability benefits amounted in the aggregate to $85. The petition alleged further that in December, 1939, plaintiff was advised that defendant had introduced into its actuarial calculations a new disability factor and had made a distinction between ordinary life policies with disability benefits and those without disability benefits. The petition then alleged that this action on the part of the defendant was without notice to or consent of plaintiff and in violation of the contract and the representation made by defendant already alluded to in this opinion and caused plaintiff to pay an additional premium to defendant in the sum of $42.32 for those years and plaintiff had been advised by defendant that it would continue to use that method of calculation in the future for the determination of dividends on his policy unless enjoined. The petition further alleged that defendant had advised plaintiff that if he would cancel the disability benefit provision of his policy he would be credited with dividends at the same rate as was credited on other policies without disability benefits; that defendant was solvent and able to pay dividends on plaintiff’s policy according to the contract; that the actual result of defendant’s acts was to increase the rate on plaintiff’s policy in violation of its terms; that plaintiff desired to keep the policy in force as it was written, and that if defendant was permitted to discriminate against him in the allocation of dividends, plaintiff would suffer irreparable loss; that he had no adequate remedy at law and the district court by taking equitable jurisdiction of the case would prevent a multiplicity of suits. The prayer of the petition was that defendant be enjoined from determining dividends on the policy in such a manner as to discriminate against plaintiff and in violation of the contract, for judgment against defendant in the sum of $42.32 and for other equitable relief.

The first defense pleaded in the answer was a specific denial of each allegation of the petition amounting in reality to a general denial of everything except that the policy was issued to the plaintiff and that a change had been made in the method of computing the amount of dividends to be credited on plaintiff’s policy.

For a second defense, the answer pleaded an action in the name of William H. Ellis and others similarly situated against this defend[713]*713ant wherein the court of last resort of the state of Alabama held that the courts of New York, not those of Alabama, had power to supervise the action of this defendant in appropriating its dividends to policyholders. The answer pleaded that this judgment was entitled to full faith and credit by the courts of this state and if that was given it would require the dismissal of this action.

For a third defense, the answer pleaded that the cause of action involved questions relating to the internal affairs of the defendant; that they were all governed by the laws of New York over which the government and the courts of New York had exclusive jurisdiction and that the defendant had returned to its policyholders the surplus of the company in proportion to the contribution which the policies had respectively made to it; that for fifty years or more in the ascertainment of the distribution of its surplus the defendant had employed a calculation which was set out in detail in the answer.

For a fourth defense, the defendant pleaded that the matter of apportionment of its divisible surplus was solely a matter of its own internal affairs and by the laws of New York was vested in its board of trustees and that to grant the relief prayed for in the petition would require this court to interfere with the internal management of the affairs of defendant and with the rights of its policyholders, which in the interest of uniformity and practical determination should properly be determined by the courts of New York, and the courts of Kansas had no jurisdiction to entertain thé suit or to grant the relief sought by the plaintiff. The prayer of the answer was that full faith and credit be given to the proceedings in Ellis v. Mutual Life Ins. Company of New York, 237 Ala. 492, 187 So.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
145 P.2d 113, 157 Kan. 710, 1944 Kan. LEXIS 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pratt-v-mutual-life-insurance-kan-1944.