Reserve Loan Life Insurance v. Root

118 N.E. 917, 67 Ind. App. 448, 1918 Ind. App. LEXIS 175
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 24, 1918
DocketNo. 9,524
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 118 N.E. 917 (Reserve Loan Life Insurance v. Root) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reserve Loan Life Insurance v. Root, 118 N.E. 917, 67 Ind. App. 448, 1918 Ind. App. LEXIS 175 (Ind. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

Ibach, C. J.

recovered a judgment against appellant on a policy of life insurance issued to Joseph P. Boot, their husband and father. The cause was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, and upon request a special finding of facts was made and conclusions of law stated thereon.

The errors assigned call in question the overruling of appellant’s demurrer to the complaint, the correctness of the conclusions of law, and the overruling of its motion for a new trial.

The court finds the facts to be substantially as follows : On .May 31,1912, Joseph P. Boot, then a resident of Centralia, Oklahoma, made an application in writing to the appellant company for an insurance policy of $1,000.. The policy issued on said application was received and accepted by the insured. At the time of the issuance and delivery of the policy the insured was alive and in apparent good health. The annual premium on the policy was $53.60. On May 31,1912, the insured paid to Bay and Hostetler, soliciting agents of appellant, $3.60 in cash and executed and delivered to them his note of that date for $50 due January 1, 1913, and providing for ten per cent, interest.- Appellant received the first annual premium in advance. Bay' and Hostetler paid it to J. D. Edmundson, at the time state agent of appellant company for the State of Oklahoma, and said Edmundson paid the same to appellant and appellant accepted it. The note was not paid and is now unpaid. The insured died April 30, 1913, in Lawrence [450]*450county, Indiana, near Tunnelton. He left as Ms legal heirs, Mary Boot, his widow, and six children, naming, them, and no other. Five of the children were minors and their mother was appointed their guardian. On May 19,1913, appellees furnished appellant proofs of death of the insured and proofs of their interest as claimants, which proofs, as well as a copy of the application and policy, are made a part of the finding. On june 10, 1913, appellant tendered'to the mother the amount of the first annual premium with interest, and to Oren Boot, one of the children, $8.15 for the first annual premium on said policy with interest. The policy has not been paid. Appellant paid to the Monroe Circuit Court $3.60 and delivered to the clerk the $50 note given by the insured to Bay and Hostetler on May 31,1912. Once about seven or eight years prior to the finding the insured had heartburn and called upon and got some tablets therefor from Dr. Andrews. In the year 1909, the insured, had a sour stomach and received medicine therefor from Dr. Matlock. In the winter of 1910 the insured had a slight attack of la grippe and called upon Dr. Mat-lock, for which he received medicine from Dr. Mat-lock. Appellant did not learn that the insured had suffered from heartburn or la grippe or had called upon a physician until May 24, 1913. Each of these, were temporary indispositions in their nature, and the insured immediately apparently completely recovered from each of them, and appeared sound and well. Neither of them seemed to affect the general soundness and healthfulness of his system, nor tended to undermine or weaken his constitution. There was no fraud in the application for said insurance.

The court concluded upon these facts that the law [451]*451was with appellee, and that they were entitled to recover $1,107.50 and costs. Appellant filed a motion for new trial, which was overruled.

The only question raised against the sufficiency of the complaint is that Mary Eoot, the widow, was not a “legal heir” of her husband, and was therefore improperly joined as a party plaintiff.

1. A widow, while not strictly an heir of her deceased husband in many instances, falls within the designation of heirs. Glass v. Davis (1889), 118 Ind. 593, 21 N. E. 319; Wiseman v. Wiseman (1880), 73 Ind. 112, 38 Am. Eep. 115. But even though she may not be a “legal heir” by virtue of her right as widow to share in the estate of the assured, yet, if she is entitled to share as distributee of her husband’s personalty, she is within the .term “legal heirs,” as used in life insurance policies. Anderson v. Groesbeck (1899), 26 Colo. 3, 55 Pac. 1086; Lyons v. Yerex (1894), 100 Mich. 214, 58 N. W. 1112, 43 Am. St. 452; 25 Cyc 888, The complaint was not insufficient in this regard.

As material to the questions presented, we set out certain provisions of the application and policy of insurance. The application contains the following:

“I hereby agree that each statement made herein and in Part 2 of this application by whomsoever they be written are full, true and complete, and that each of the same is material to the risk. (Part 2.) * * * 5. Are you now in sound health? Yes. * * * 14. Have you ever had any of the following diseases ? (e) Dyspepsia or indigestion? No. * * * 17. Except as you have previously stated, for what have [452]*452you ever consulted a physician or surgeon? Nothing.”

Said application further provides:

* that the policy ess I am alive and in “I hereby agree shall not take effect uni good health at the time oí' its delivery to me; nor then unless the first premium is paid in cash or a note for extension of time for such payment is accepted by the company.”

The policy contains the following provision:

“All statements made by the insured shall, in the absence of fraud, be deemed representations and not warranties, and no statement made by the insured shall avoid this policy unless it is contained in the written application therefor.”

It is first insisted that the conclusions of law are erroneous in that the facts do not show that a prepayment of premium was waived. Under the facts found this was not necessary. The finding is that the premium was paid in advance and received and accepted by appellant.’

2. Appellant further contends that the conclusions of law are erroneous, in that it appears from the findings that the insured suffered an attack of la grippe, for which he consulted a physician and received medicine; that having denied consulting any physician for anything, having agreed that the statements in the application were material, and appellant having no knowledge of the facts concealed, the conclusions of law should have been in its favor.

This court in a recent case (Prudential Life Ins. Co. v. Sellers [1913], 54 Ind. App. 326, 102 N. E. 894), [453]*453had occasion to consider a similar contract and certain alleged fraudulent answers in the application therefor, and we there held that a question in an application, as to whether the applicant had been attended by a physician within three years for any complaint, might be honestly interpreted to mean a treatment for any serious disease, and that her answer that she had not, under the evidence, warranted the jury in finding that her answer was substantially true.

In that case the inquiry was limited to three years, while in the instant case it covered applicant’s entire life, which would be only a better reason for the application of the principle here. The language of the contract in that case as in the present contract expressly provided' that all statements made by the insured in the absence of fraud should be deemed representations and not warranties.

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Related

Houston v. New York Life Insurance Co.
8 P.2d 434 (Washington Supreme Court, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
118 N.E. 917, 67 Ind. App. 448, 1918 Ind. App. LEXIS 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reserve-loan-life-insurance-v-root-indctapp-1918.