Wilson v. Royal Union Mutual Life Insurance

114 N.W. 1051, 137 Iowa 184
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 11, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 114 N.W. 1051 (Wilson v. Royal Union Mutual Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Royal Union Mutual Life Insurance, 114 N.W. 1051, 137 Iowa 184 (iowa 1908).

Opinion

Si-ierwin, J.

This is a suit to recover $2,000 upon a twenty-year payment, twenty-year settlement plan policy, issued upon the life of Lulu Wilson; her husband, Warren II. Wilson, the plaintiff herein, being the beneficiary named in said policy. The defendant denied liability on the ground that the policy had lapsed and was not in force at the time of the death of the insured.

The policy was issued' on the 16th day of May, 1894, and provided for the payment of a yearly premium of $52.20 which was payable at or before 12 o’clock noon on the 16th day of May in every year, until twenty full years premiums had been paid.” The policy further provided that after two full annual premiums had been paid the policy should be incontestable and become nonforfeitable in amounts as indorsed thereon, provided the policy was presented at the office of the company properly receipted, conditioned (1) for its cash surrender value within three months, and (2) for its paid-up value within six months from the date of the first unpaid premium. The premiums provided for in the policy were all paid up to and including that due for 1902. The premium due May 16, 1903, was not paid, and Mrs. Wilson died on the 13th day of February, 1904. The policy itself did not contain a forfeiture clause for the nonpayment of premiums; but on the 2d of June, 1899, Lulu and Warren H. Wilson gave their note to the-insurance company for money borrowed on the policy in suit, and said note contained the following stipulation:

This note is secured by a lien on policy No. 1842 issued on the life of Lulu Wilson by the Royal Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, Des Moines, Iowa, for $2,000, at age twenty-one, and dated May 16, 1894, on plan twenty payment life, with a premium of $52.20 payable annually, and falling due May 16th, and it is agreed that if default is made in the payment of any premium upon said policy or in the payment hereof, either principal or interest, then this note shall become payable at once, and in that event we hereby elect to take the cash surrender value of said policy at the date of [187]*187such default, and we hereby empower said insurance company to cancel the said policy upon its boohs, and, after taking out all sums due upon said note, and said policy, to hold the balance, if any, to our credit, without interest, to be paid to us upon surrender of said policy, duly receipted, at the home office of said company at Des Moines.

1. Insurance: forfeiture right to insist upon. The defendant relies on the forfeiture clause in the note and on the failure to pay the annual premium due May 16, 1903. .A copy of the note was never attached to the policy, an<l because thereof the appellant contends that the defendant cannot avail itself of its terms. Appellant further insists that, even if the condition of the note be available to the defendant, it waived its right to rely thereon. We think there is no tenable ground upon which it can be held that a copy of the note should have been attacked to the policy to enable the defendant to interpose its terms as a defense thereto. The appellant bases his contention on this point on section 1741 of the Code, and on cases applying the same to somewhat similar facts, but which cases, as we shall further along demonstrate, are not controlling in the instant case. Section 1741 of the Code provides as follows:

All insurance companies or associations shall, upon the issue or renewal of any policy, attach to such policy, or indorse thereon, a true copy of any application or representation of the assured which, by the terms of such policy, are made a part thereof, or of the contract of insurance, or referred to therein, or which may in any manner affect the validity of such policy. The omission so to do. shall not render the policy invalid, but if any company or association neglects to comply with the requirements of this section it shall forever be precluded from pleading, alleging or proving any such application or representations, or any part thereof, or falsity thereof, or any parts thereof, in any action upon such policy, and the plaintiff in any such action shall not be required, in order to recover against such company or association, either to plead or prove such application or representation, but may do so at his option.

[188]*188The statute provides that upon the issue or renewal of any policy ” there shall be attached thereto or indorsed thereon, etc. There is no requirement therein that a copy of any agreement made subsequent to the issue or renewal of the policy shall be so attached. Nor is there any language in the section which can be construed to penalize an insurance company for entering into a supplemental contract. It is a fundamental rule that contracts of insurance may be modified by a new and distinct agreement entered into by the parties. In other words, such contracts, except in so far as they are controlled by statutory enactment, are governed by the rules applicable to any ordinary contract, and no one would question the right of subsequent change. 16 Am. & Eng. Enc. of Law, 868; Leonard v. Insurance Co., 65 Conn. 529 (33 Atl. 511) ; Iowa Ins. Co. v. Lewis, 187 U. S. 335 (23 Sup. Ct. 126, 47 L. Ed. 204); Walts v. Insurance Co., 118 Iowa, 216. The note in question was executed and delivered more than five years after the policy issued, and the only objection to the enforcement of its terms is because a copy thereof was not attached to the policy. But it is shown conclusively that its terms were known to the signers, and that a copy thereof was in fact mailed „to the policy holder under such circumstances as to almost conclusively show that it was received. The appellant relies upon Lewis v. Burlington Ins. Co., 71 Iowa, 97, and Summers v. Des Moines Ins. Co., 116 Iowa, 593, as supporting his contention that a copy of the note should have been attached to the policy. In both of those cases the notes in question were executed and delivered contemporaneously with the policies sued on. They were given for the first premium in both cases, and it was held that the statute was applicable to them. In the latter case, however, doubt is expressed as to the correctness of the original holding, which was in the Lewis case.

[189]*1892. Nonpayment of premiums: forfeiture: waiver. [188]*188The facts upon which the appellant relies as constituting a waiver are substantially these: The premium due on the 16th of May, 1896, was not paid until the 22d of the same [189]*189month, and was then accepted by the company. The premium due May 16, 1899, WaS Paid May 26th and was accepted by the company. As to these two payments it will be noticed they were due and in fact paid before the note in question was given, which was June 2, 1899. The premium due May 16, 1900, was' not paid when due, and the policy was lapsed on on account thereof, and it was only reinstated in the following January upon the application of the insured and after she had submitted to a medical examination as to the then condition of her health, and furnished a certificate thereof, which was accepted by the defendant, together with the premium then due, with interest thereon, and the interest then due on the policy loan for which the note in question was given.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cantrell v. Benefit Ass'n of Railway Employees
348 P.2d 345 (Montana Supreme Court, 1960)
Adams v. Mutual Life Insurance
132 N.E. 688 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1921)
Hartford Life Ins. Co. v. Benson
187 S.W. 351 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1916)
Palmer v. Mutual Life Insurance
130 N.W. 250 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1911)
Robey v. State Insurance
124 N.W. 775 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1910)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 N.W. 1051, 137 Iowa 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-royal-union-mutual-life-insurance-iowa-1908.