Rataj v. Providers Life Assurance Co.

221 Ill. App. 459, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 61
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 30, 1921
StatusPublished

This text of 221 Ill. App. 459 (Rataj v. Providers Life Assurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rataj v. Providers Life Assurance Co., 221 Ill. App. 459, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 61 (Ill. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

Mr. PresidiNG Justice Eagleton

delivered the opinion of the court.

On September 9, 1919, Weronika Eataj made application through one John Skrabacz to the appellant, 'Providers Life Assurance Company, for a $1,000 policy of insurance on her life with John Eataj, the appellee, as beneficiary and on the same day submitted to a medical examination. On October 21, 1919, a policy was issued and was delivered to her shortly thereafter. On the 10th or 11th day of November, 1919, the assured died and the appellant was notified of her death and denied liability under the policy.

A suit in assumpsit was brought by the appellee and a declaration filed in which the policy, wAh copies of the application and the report of the medical examination attached, were set forth in hcec vería. To the declaration the appellant filed a plea of nonas-sumpsit; also a special plea setting forth that the condition of the policy was that the first premium be paid in full before the policy was effective and that the first premium had not been paid; that the policy contained a provision that it did not assure against self-destruction, either while sane or insane, and that the assured came to her death by an abortion, self-produced; and that the assured was required to truthfully answer certain questions in her application for a policy, one of which was whether she was pregnant, which she answered in the negative, when in truth she was at the time of making said answer pregnant and that as a result of such pregnancy she died and that because of the false warranties and statements the policy was not in force at the time of her death.

In the replications filed, the appellee averred the appellant agreed to accept the premium in instal-ments and a portion thereof had been paid, that the assured was not pregnant and did not procure or produce an abortion on herself.

After issues were joined the cause was tried by a jury and a verdict returned in favor of the appellee, fixing his damages at $989.05, and after the court had denied a written motion, by the appellant, for a new trial, judgment was rendered in favor of the appellee and from that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

The appellant urges as grounds for reversal the issues raised by the special pleas.

At the conclusion of the appellee’s evidence, the appellant moved the court to instruct the jury to find the issues in favor of the defendant, which was denied by the court, and the motion was renewed by the appellant at the close of all the evidence and again denied. It is argued that having made a motion at the close of the appellee’s evidence, all proceedings subsequent thereto were erroneous and advantage may be tallen of other claimed errors without specifically. assigning them on the record. It may be stated that taldng this position as correct, if'the court did not err in refusing the motion, the appellant cannot avail itself of subsequent errors except by assigning them.

In support of his action the appellee introduced the policy sued on and also a receipt as follows:

“Form 62

“Incorporated under the laws of the State of

Illinois Capital $100,000.

“The Providers Life Assurance Company.

“Received of Weronika Rataj

“Thirty & 95-100 Dollars. io 05 o eo

o O © r-i

“Being annual Premium on Policy No. 9347.. 20.95

“Attested by

“J. SkRabacz M. Míeosla wski,

Secretary.”

The appellee testified he first saw the policy and receipt after the death of his wife and that 3 or 4 days before her death he paid Skrabacz $10 and told him the next time he would pay him $10, and he said, all right.

A son of the appellee and the assured said he saw Skrabacz deliver to the assured what he said was the policy.

The policy contained a provision: “This assurance is granted in consideration of the application therefor, copy of which is attached hereto and made a part hereof, and of the payment in advance of the annual premium of twenty-nine and ninety-five one hundredths dollars in exchange for a receipt signed by the President or Secretary and countersigned by an authorized agent of the Company.” There is also a provision that: “No condition, provision or privilege of this policy can be waived or modified in any case except by an endorsement hereon signed by the President, one of the Vice Presidents, the Secretary or Assistant Secretary, whose authority will not be delegated. No agent has power to make, alter or discharge this or any other contract in relation to the matter of this assurance, or to extend the time for payment of premiums.”

There is another provision of the policy as follows: “Payment of Premium. The Company will accept payment of the Annual Premiums stated above in semi-annual installments of fifty-two per cent of the Animal Premium or in quarterly installments of twenty-six and one-half per cent of the Annual Premium. * * * All premiums are payable in advance at the Home Office, or to an agent of the Company in exchange for a receipt signed by the President or Secretary and countersigned by said agent. A grace of thirty-one days * * * shall be granted for the payment of every premium after the first * *

The appellant cites section 6513 of Jones and Ad-dington’s Illinois Statute as prohibiting the acceptance of less than the full amount of the first premium in advance. This section excludes the first, premium from the operation thereof by expressly providing as to payments of premiums after the first.

Pa the light of the evidence and the provisions of the policy, the court did not err in either of its rulings in refusing to direct the jury to return a verdict for the appellant.

Skrabacz testified on behalf of the appellant that he worked for the appellant in Fast St. Louis and knew the deceased; that the policy and the receipt were given to him by the general agent of the appellant and he took the policy to the home of the assured and she paid him $10 and said if he would wait until the next month she would pay the balance, and he left the policy.

Except as recited above, there is no other evidence as to the payment of the first premium and no other provision of the policy in any way controlling the payment of the first premium.

In John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Schlink, 175 Ill. 284, the Supreme Court quotes from standard authorities with apparent approval as follows: From Eichards on Insurance (2nd Ed. sec. 95): “An agent of a life insurance company who is intrusted with the business of closing the contract by delivering the policy is held to have an implied authority to determine how the premium then due shall be paid, whether by cash, or, as is sometimes done, by giving credit * * *. By tbe weight of authority the agent is held.to have this discretionary power, although the policy in terms denied it. * # Mechem on Agency (sec. 931, div. 1) is quoted as follows: “The insurance agent, as thus distinguished from the broker, is ordinarily held to be a general agent of the company.

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Bluebook (online)
221 Ill. App. 459, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rataj-v-providers-life-assurance-co-illappct-1921.