Southern Surety Co. v. Fortson

161 S.E. 679, 44 Ga. App. 329, 1931 Ga. App. LEXIS 712
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 11, 1931
Docket21204, 21223
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 161 S.E. 679 (Southern Surety Co. v. Fortson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Surety Co. v. Fortson, 161 S.E. 679, 44 Ga. App. 329, 1931 Ga. App. LEXIS 712 (Ga. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinions

Broyles, C. J.

This is a suit upon a policy of accident insurance.

Copies of the policy, and of the application therefor (signed by the plaintiff), were attached to the petition, and the petition as amended set out a cause of action and was not subject to any of the special grounds of the demurrer, and the court properly so ruled.

The answer to the question as to the correctness of the court’s ruling upon the demurrer to the amended answer depends upon a consideration, and the proper construction, of the answer and the demurrer. Of course it is elementary law that when pleadings are attacked by demurrer, the truth of the allegations of fact set forth in the pleadings, and the truth of all other allegations,supported by the facts stated in the pleadings, are admitted.

Upon the question now under consideration the following paragraphs of the amended. answer are pertinent and material:

[330]*330“16. For further plea and answer defendant says: that the policy of accident insurance was issued based upon a certain written application executed and delivered to defendant by -plaintiff, and that a copy of said application for said insurance was attached to 'the policy of insurance delivered by defendant to plaintiff, all in compliance with section 2417 [2471] of the Civil Code of Georgia of 1910, and that under the law plaintiff can not claim under the contract of insurance without being held to knowledge of the statements in the application for said insurance, which forms a .part of the contract of insurance as delivered and accepted by plaintiff and now sued upon.

.“17. A copy, of said application is hereto attached,. marked Exhibit A,, and made a part of this plea, and answer.

“18. Question 9 of said-application reads as follows: ‘Does your income per month' exceed the gross amount of single monthly indemnity under.all policies carried and now. applied for by you?’ Plaintiff answered said question ‘Yes.’ -At the time this question was answered plaintiff was carrying an accident-insurance policy with Maryland Casualty Company, which said policy of insurance provided for a weekly indemnity of $30.00. This would make a total of $120.00 per month under the policy carried with Maryland Casualty Company and $100.00 a- month with the defendant company, which would make the gross amount of single monthly indemnity under all policies carried by plaintiff and now applied for by plaintiff $220.00, whereas at the time plaintiff was receiving a monthly income of only $150.00; which said representations were untrue, and they changed the nature and character of the risk assumed by the defendant; and by reason of said representations, which defendant alleges were false, said policy of insurance is null and void and plaintiff can not recover thereon.

“19. The application for said insurance company provides, just before the first question is asked, as follows: ‘I hereby apply to the Southern Surety Company for a policy of insurance to be issued in pursuance of the following representation:’ Question 17 of said application reads as follows: ‘Do you understand and agree that as each and all of the above representations are made to induce the issuance of an insurance policy, should one or more of such representations, whether actually written hereon by you or not, prove to be false, all right to recovery of indemnity by yourself, your [331]*331beneficiary, heirs or assigns, under any policy issued upon this application, shall be voided and forfeited to the company if such false answer were made with actual intent to deceive, or materially affect the acceptance of the risk, or the hazard, assumed by the company; that the signing of this application does not effect an insurance contract, and that the insurance hereby applied for shall not be effective prior to the date and hour set forth in a policy actually issued by the company, such policy thereupon becoming effective if delivered to you while you are in good health and free from the effects of any injury, disease, or bodily infirmity; that no agent or solicitor of the company has authority to alter, amend or waive any policy provision or requirement.’

“20. This was a material statement made in said application; said statement was untrue and the fact thereof was known to plaintiff at the time made; such' statement was made with a view of procuring the insurance; the defendant had no .knowledge of the falsity of the statement and defendant acted thereon to its injury, because if defendant had known that plaintiff’s monthly income did not exceed the gross amount of single monthly indemnity under all policies carried by plaintiff at the time, and also all policies applied -for at the time, defendant would not have issued the policy sued upon, and the very purpose of question 9 of the application was to obtain from plaintiff the amount of indemnity carried and applied for at the time; and had plaintiff answered said question correctly, no insurance would have been issued to plaintiff by defendant, and the statement of plaintiff in answering said question incorrectly perpetrated a fraud upon defendant, and said policy of insurance is null and void on account of the fraud perpetrated on defendant by plaintiff in answering said question ‘Yes,’ when it should have been answered ‘No.’

“20-A. Defendant does not and can not issue a policy of accident insurance where the income of the applicant per month' [does not] exceed the gross amount of single monthly indemnity under all policies carried by applicant and applied for by applicant, this defendant only issuing policies of accident insurance where the written application shows that the income per month exceeds the gross amount of single monthly indemnity under all policies. The basis upon which this defendant will issue a policy of accident insurance- depends upon a correct answer of question 9 of the ap[332]*332plication attached to the policy sued upon in this case. And if this application had been correctly answered, it would have shown that at the time the application was executed plaintiff had in force a policy with the Maryland Casualty Company carrying an indemnity of $30.00 per week, and the policy issued by defendant carried an indemnity of $100.00 a month, whereas at the time plaintiff was drawing a salary of $150.00 a month and had no other income except this salary. Defendant alleges that the basis of accident insurance depends upon the amount of the income of the applicant, and that defendant will in no event issue a policy of insurance where it is known that the indemnity thereunder amounts to more than eighty per cent of the income of the applicant. And had plaintiff made the correct answer to question 9, which was ‘Yes/ no policy of insurance would have been issued.

“21. Said policy of insurance is null and void because it materially affected the acceptance of the risk and increased the hazard assumed by defendant by plaintiff answering said question 9 ‘Yes' when it should have been answered ‘No'

“21-A.

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Bluebook (online)
161 S.E. 679, 44 Ga. App. 329, 1931 Ga. App. LEXIS 712, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-surety-co-v-fortson-gactapp-1931.