Unionaid Life Insurance v. Munford

24 S.W.2d 966, 180 Ark. 1048, 1930 Ark. LEXIS 59
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 3, 1930
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 24 S.W.2d 966 (Unionaid Life Insurance v. Munford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Unionaid Life Insurance v. Munford, 24 S.W.2d 966, 180 Ark. 1048, 1930 Ark. LEXIS 59 (Ark. 1930).

Opinion

Mehajty, J.

This action was begun by appellee to recover on an insurance policy issued by the appellant to W. W. Munford, on the 20th day of March, 1928.

The deceased, W. W. Munford, on the 26th day of April, 1916, made application for a certificate of membership in the Mutualaid Union, an assessment company, and the certificate issued by this company to Munford, among other things, provided that, upon the death of the applicant within the first six months after the date of the certificate, the company would pay $75; if within the calendar month next succeeding, the sum of $87.50, and the amount thereafter to increase each calendar month in the sum of $12.50 for and during the term of eighty months. And that after the expiration of eighty months, upon condition only that prompt and due payments be made to the home office of the Mutualaid Union of all assessments that may be made under the rules and by-laws, that it would pay $1,000.

W. W. Munford paid all dues and assessments from that time until the reinsurance agreement 'between the appellant and the Mutualaid Union.

On December 14, 1926, the appellant entered into an agreement with the Mutualaid Union by which it was agreed, in substance, that the members of the membership of the reinsured association is taken over by the reinsuring company, its successors or assigns, under the terms and conditions set forth in the contract. It provides that all living’ contributing members and policyholders of the reinsured association in good standing in said association on the first day of April, 1927, are hereby taken over, and the liability of the reinsured association to such members under their certificates of membership is assumed by the reinsuring company under the terms and conditions herein set forth, in consideration of such members complying all and singular with the terms and conditions of this contract and with the rules, regulations, laws and requirements of the reinsuring company.

It also provided that the reinsuring company should be subrogated to all the powers, privileges, authority, rights and good will enjoyed by the reinsured association, including the authority delegated under the constitution and by-laws of the reinsured association for the government and control of its members, and provided that it should be subrogated to. each and every defense that would have been available to the reinsured association in the conduct of its business.

Section three of the contract provided that all living members of the reinsured association, that is, the Mutual-aid Union, in good standing, should pay to the reinsuring company, the appellant, contributions and assessments that they were then paying to the Mutualaid Union.

And a statement of the Unionaid Life Insurance Company was delivered to W. W. Munford, advising him of the reinsurance contract, and that it assumed all liabilities under his certificate.

Sometime in March he received a letter from the appellant with reference to exchanging his certificate for a policy in the appellant company. In response to this letter, he made an application for the change, and sent in his insurance certificate issued by the Mutualaid Union, as directed by appellant, to ¡be canceled.

On the 20th day of March the appellant canceled his old certificate, issued a new policy, and sent it to their agent to be delivered to Munford. The evidence, however, shows that they directed him not to deliver it until Mun-ford had signed an application which was presented to him, in which it was said he did not have stomach trouble or pellagra. This was presented to him three days after his old certificate had been canceled, and after the new policy had been issued.

He answered all the questions, and, among other things, stated that he did not have any disease of the stomach, or cancer, or pellagra.

It appears that on the 23rd day of March, the same day that his policy was taken to him, and he signed this application in which he stated that he was in good health, that he went to see Doctor Smith, of Russellville, and complained of his stomach. Dr. -Smith, at that time, examined him, but told him that he would have to have an X-ray picture made in order to determine what his ailment was. Thereafter, the X-ray picture was made, and it showed some ailment that the doctor thought required an operation, and he performed the operation, and a short while after the operation Munford died of pellagra.

It is contended that Mr. Munford, on the day he signed the application, warranted that he was in good health, and had no physical defects at that time; and appellant states he was then in a serious condition, and was fully aware of the fact. There is no evidence at all that he had any kind of physical ailment at the time he secured the certificate in the Mutualaid Union in 1916. And when the company wrote him to send in his policy, together with an application to be made on a blank which was sent by the company, he had a rig’ht to assume that that was all he had to do. And, so far as the evidence shows, at that time he at least thought that he was in good health.

It is contended 'by the appellant that his statements in this application were warranties, and numerous authorities are cited, among others, § 14 of act 139 of the Acts of 1925. That section reads as follows:

“Statements, representations and answers on the part of applicants for membership as to questions of age, condition of health and eligibility shall be construed as warranties on the part of the applicant, and such applicant bound thereby, and shall constitute a part consideration for issuance of the policy or certificate of membership. ’ ’

The above section has no application. The appellant is not an assessment company, not organized under the act referred to, and that act is an act to define assessment, liability, health and accident associations or companies, industrial insurance companies, to provide how same may be organized, and transact business in this .State, for proper regulation of the same, and for other purposes.

The appellant, as we have said, is not an assessment company, and the act referred to has reference to assessment companies only, or such companies as are mentioned in the act, and the appellant is not in that class.

The court was justified in finding that, when Munf ord applied to. the doctor, he did not think he had any ailment mentioned in the application, or that he did not have any serious ailment at all. And if he, in good faith, answered the questions, or if he believed the answers he gave were true, the fact that they turned out to be untrue would not affect the policy. United States Annuity & Life Ins. Co. v. Park, 129 Ark. 43, 195 S. W. 392, 1 A. L. R. 1254.

There is no law making statements, representions and answers as to. condition of health or eligibility warranties in an application to a company of this kind. And there was no law at the time Munford made his application to the Mutualaid Union making statements of this kind of warranties.

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Bluebook (online)
24 S.W.2d 966, 180 Ark. 1048, 1930 Ark. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/unionaid-life-insurance-v-munford-ark-1930.