Rosaly de Colón v. Sun Life Assurance Co.

47 P.R. 287
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJuly 26, 1934
DocketNo. 6490
StatusPublished

This text of 47 P.R. 287 (Rosaly de Colón v. Sun Life Assurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rosaly de Colón v. Sun Life Assurance Co., 47 P.R. 287 (prsupreme 1934).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Del Toro

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The dismissal of the appeal taken is requested as being frivolous. The complete transcript is before us and the ap-pellee’s motion was presented after the appellant had filed her brief. We had also the benefit of an intelligent oral argument of the questions involved by the distinguished attorneys for both parties during the hearing of the motion.

[288]*288It is alleged in the complaint, in brief, that on April 15, 1929, Manuel Colón and bis wife, tbe plaintiff, entered with tbe Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada, tbe defendant, into a joint dotal insurance policy contract on tbe lives of boob, containing tbe following stipulation, drafted, as tbe whole policy, in Spanish:

“. . . Benefit. If while this policy is in force trustworthy proof is presented to the company showing that the death of any of the insured persons is due, directly and independently of any other cause, to bodily injuries received before becoming sixty years old, and which injuries may have been caused by external, violent, and accidental means, within ninety days from the date on which such injuries were suffered, the Company will pay, in addition to the insurance sum expressed on the first page of the policy, a sum equm to said insurance sum (excluding the additional bonds) payable at the same time and in the same manner as said insurance sum. — Exceptions: This benefit of twofold compensation does not cover nor include the death ... if the person is the victim of homicide. . .

It is further alleged that the stipulated premiums were paid up to April 26, 1933; that on February 1, 1933, while Colón, the insured person, who bad not become sixty years old, was walking by the city of Ponce, he was suddenly, assaulted with malice aforethough from the rear, by Angel Iri-zarry who fired three shots at him, causing bis death few hours later, and that the defendant is willing to pay the plaintiff the insurance • sum — three thousand dollars — -but refuses to acknowledge him the benefit of the twofold compensation.

The tenth averment of the complaint, copied verbatim, reads:

“That according to the plaintiff’s best information and belief, at the time the said policy contract was subscribed by Mr. Manuel Colón Figueroa and the insurance company, namely, The Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the latter, through its agent Mr. José Casanova, who was a duly authorized agent of the said company, told said Mr. Manuel Colón Figueroa, that in case the death [289]*289were due to murder, his beneficiaries would be entitled to receive the benefits of the twofold compensation clause transcribed in the fourth averment of this complaint, and which is a part of the said insurance contract on the life of said Mr. Manuel Colón Figueroa and his wife, the plaintiff herein, with the defendant company; and we continue to allege that said Mr. Manuel Colón Figueroa subscribed under such belief the so many times referred to insurance contract on his life and his wife’s under the indicated policy number 976261.”

The complaint ends with the prayer that judgment be rendered for six thousand dollars, together with costs and attorney’s fees.

The defendant moved that all of the tenth averment be stricken out and the court so decreed. The plaintiff took an exception.

A duly amended complaint was filed and the defendant filed a demurrer thereto based on want of facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action as to the double indemnity.

The demurrer was sustained and, as the complaint was not open to amendment, the court proceeded to render judgment ordering the defendant to pay the plaintiff the insurance sum of three thousand dollars and exempting it from paying the double indemnity, without special imposition of costs.

The plaintiff appealed. While the appeal was being perfected, both parties agreed that the judgment be paid with regard to the three thousand dollars, the appeal subsisting as to the determination of whether or not the double indemnity was provident.

The appellant maintains in her brief that the court erred, in directing the tenth averment to be stricken out, and in deciding that the plaintiff is not entitled to the twofold compensation.

The first error assigned does not exist. We agree with the appellant in that the rule contained in Section 25 of the [290]*290Law of Evidence, 387 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1933 ed., has exceptions. The rule says:

“When the terms of an agreement have been reduced to writing by the parties, it is to be considered as containing all those terms, and therefore, there can be between the parties and their representatives, successors in interest, no evidence of the terms of the agreements other than the contents of the writing, except in the following eases: ’ ’

And the law itself points out the exceptions which the jurisprudence has endeavored to fix to its full extent. See, among others, the cases of De la Rosa v. Heirs of Quevedo, 47 P.R.R. 165, and Marxuach v. Acosta, 39 P.R.R. 872.

We also agree with the appellant in that the state of the jurisprudence on the subject has been well exposed in the following citation from Jones on Evidence, to wit:

“Perhaps the most important exception to the general rule under discussion is that, in actions where written agreements are involved, the consideration stated is generally open to explanation. Thus, in actions on notes or other contracts, the defense is frequently interposed that the agreement was without consideration, or that the consideration has failed; and proof sustaining such a defense is admissible, provided it does not in other respects vary the legal effect of the contract. For example, when the consideration stated has failed, another can be proved; if a bill of sale, release or other written instrument fails to state the entire consideration, the same may be shown; so whether the true consideration is greater or less than that stated; and if the consideration stated is in ambiguous terms, or if it is clear that the whole consideration is not stated, the true consideration may be proved, and it is now the rule generally adopted that the real consideration may be proved although different from that expressed; for example, where there is merely a nominal consideration expressed. The fact that the consideration dehors the instrument rests in contingency will not preclude its admissibility, as, for instance, when one made a contract to pay off for another a debt due to a third person, taking a conveyance of the debtor’s land, which was to be sold and the surplus (if any) paid to the debtor, and the conveyance showed only the amount of the debt as the consideration, the debtor was allowed to give evidence of the contingency. When the instrument itself expresses that there is other consideration ,evidence of it is, of course admissible [291]*291as well, on the ground of explaining the ambiguity. When the consideration for different properties is expressed in a lump sum, parol evidence is admissible to show the division.

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