Southern Travelers' Ass'n v. Boyd

1 S.W.2d 446
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 30, 1927
DocketNo. 2912.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1 S.W.2d 446 (Southern Travelers' Ass'n v. Boyd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Travelers' Ass'n v. Boyd, 1 S.W.2d 446 (Tex. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

This suit was brought by Mrs. Boyd against the appellant association to recover on an insurance policy. All matters of fact were submitted to the trial court, and that court rendered judgment for the plaintiff, and defendant has appealed to this court.

'Mrs. Boyd was employed in Patton’s tailoring establishment. Pier duties there consisted in altering clothing and pressing it. She testifies:

“My principal work was just what I said-alterations and repairs. I would alter them, I would press them. I would alter clothes that had been worn and new ones that would have to be altered before they were delivered. The press that I would use was a Hoffman, which operated by a little lever by shoving that lever with your foot. It was controlled by that lever. That was used in pressing coats and pants and such things. When I wanted to use it, I turned the power on to it, and I could cut it off when, I wanted to stop it. It is worked with your hand, but you have to use your hand and your foot. It was not run by electric power, it was run by steam, I think — I am not sure. The power stayed on from morning till night. I did not turn the power on or off as I desired, but the power was always on, and I operated the press when I wanted to use it.”

Mr. Buron, an agent of the association, who was soliciting insurance from Patton, the owner of the shop, discussed with Mrs. Boyd the character of insurance she should get. He took her application, and later Mrs. Boyd received a certificate of insurance from the association.

At the time Mrs. Boyd was injured, she was engaged in work for the Troy laundry. It appears from the evidence that she had, before going to work for Patton, worked for the laundry, and that on the occasion of the injury she had, at the request of the laundry, gone down after work hours at Patton’s to help the laundry people out. That night as she was temporarily assisting them and was engaged in operating the press and had been at work about 2½ hours, an electric wire in the motor burned in two and caused the press to faU on her hand and arm, severely-burning her arm from the elbow to her fingertips. This burn later necessitated an operation whereby she lost her hand and a part of her arm.

*448 In the plaintiff’s application for insurance, in answer to the question as to what was her occupation, it is stated that she is a “tailor-ess.” The association contends that a tailor, as defined hy Mr. Webster, is “one whose occupation is to cut out and make men’s or women’s outer garments,” and that as Mrs. Boyd’s duties were not those of a tailor, as thus defined, she had untruthfully answered the question as to her occupation, and that she was, in fact, not an insurable person, and by thus answering . had breached her warranty in her application, thus voiding the policy.

The evidence discloses, as above stated, that the agent of the association was soliciting-Patton for insurance, and while doing so, discussed the question of insurance with Mrs. Boyd. She testifies:

“At the time Mr. Buron took my application for this insurance, he filled out the blanks on the application and I signed my name to it. I did not tell him, at that time, what my duties were —what I was doing there, and I did not ask him. He seen what I was doing and he filled those blanks out himself. * * * He did not say anything to me about the classification of the occupation. I did not tell him I was a tailoress, he put that down himself. He just wrote tailoring.”

It is evident from this undisputed testimony that the agent himself defined Mrs. Boyd’s occupation from what he observed there. In the classification, given in the “Health and Underwriters’ Manual,” which we will discuss later, under the heading “Tail- or,” the association defines the duties of tailor, and among those named are “cleaner and presser” and “cutter” — thus recognizing the duties of that occupation — and the agent was not only authorized by the facts of Mrs. Boyd’s vocation, but also by this classification, to so classify her occupation.

It is therefore apparent that the restricted definition quoted above is not applicable here. Hence Mrs. Boyd, in signing the application containing such designation of her occupation, was not guilty of deceiving the association and of practicing a fraud on them, and there was no breach of her warranty that the statement therein contained, that she was a tailoress, was true.

Section 1, art. 2, of the by-laws of the association, relative to membership, provides as follows:

“Section 1. Any white person of good character and good health and between the ages of 18 and 55 years, whose application for membership signifies such person is not engaged in any business more hazardous than those designated in the application, or from time to time by the board of directors, may be eligible to membership in this association as hereinafter defined, when accepted by the board of directors or committee thereof.”

Under the heading of “Those Eligible to Membership,” the application signed by Mrs. Boyd provides:

“Any white man or woman, within the age limit of 18 to 55 years, whose occupation in the Mutual Manual of Health and Accident Association is rated as a class A ‘select’ or class B ‘preferred’ risk of good moral character, and sound in mind and body, is eligible to membership in this association.”

As to Mrs. Boyd’s eligibility to membership in the association, no question is raised except that of the falsity of her representation as to her occupation, and that the facts of her occupation place her outside of insurable classification. This has been discussed above and the contention- is overruled.

We do not think the case of Judd v. Lubbock Mutual Aid Association (Tex. Civ. App.) 269 S. W. 284, is in point here, or that the rule laid down in that case applies to the facts of this case. In the Judd Oase, the insured was in the last stages of pulmonary consumption at the time application was made for insurance. He well knew his condition, having been so informed by his physician. His wife, who was the beneficiary of the insurance, and his cousin, who filled out and signed the application for him, also knew it. This court held that, notwithstanding the jury’s finding that the cousin was the agent of the association, such finding did not necessarily, as a matter of law, settle the question of agency, but that if the cousin of the insured had knowledge of the bad health of the insured, it could not be imputed to the association, for the reason that he was acting against the interest of the association and was engaged in perpetrating a fraud on them in favor of his kinsman, the insured. In that case, it was held that the representations as to the health of the insured constituted a warranty of the truth of the statement, and in view of the falsity of the statement the association was not bound by the certificate of insurance. In the case at bar, there was no misrepresentation, intentional or otherwise, on the part of Mrs. Boyd, and no fraud, express or implied, can rightly be laid to her charge.

In the case of Schumann v. Brownwood Mutual Life Ass’n, 286 S. W.

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