National Life & Accident Ins. v. Hanner
National Life & Accident Ins. v. Hanner
Opinion of the Court
The National Life & Accident Insurance Company of Nashville, Tenn., issued a policy of insurance to Charley Hanner on the 25th day of November, 1918, covering life insurance combined with, weekly indemnity for sickness and accident. Under said policy of insurance, the insurer, in consideration of a weekly premium of 25 cents (20 per cent, of which was for life insurance and SO per cent, of which was for insurance against disability from sickness or accident), agreed, subject to the conditions of the policy, to pay to the beneficiary, Lucy Hanner, in the event of the..death of the insured, the amount of the death benefit, which was specified in said policy as the sum of $46.25, and *48 also to pay to the insured, in case of sickness or accident, a weekly benefit of $5 per week.
On the 11th day of January, 1021, Charley Hanner, appellee, brought his action against the National Life & Accident Insurance Company, a corporation, appellant, in a justice court, to recover the sum of $100 alleged to be due him under the above-mentioned insurance policy. It waá averred in the complaint that the insured was accidentally injured by a railroad locomotive on the 13th day of September, 1920, and that said injury was inflicted at a time when said insurance policy was in full force and 'effect, and that, as a result of said injury, plaintiff was disabled and incapacitated for w.ork from the date of said injury to the date suit was brought. On the 19th day of February, 1921, judgment was rendered by the justice court for -the sum of $85 and costs of suit. The defendant insurer took an appeal from the judgment of the justice court to the circuit court of Tuscaloosa county, and on May 4, 1921, there was a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff insured and against defendant insurer for the sum of $100, and the judgment of the court below was accordingly rendered in favor of plaintiff and .against defendant for said sum of $100, together with the costs of suit. On the 25th day of May, 1921,.the defendant filed its motion for a new trial, and on the 11th day of July, 1921, to which date ■ the hearing of said motion had been duly and legally continued, said motion for a new trial was heard and determined by the trial court, and thereupon the judgment of the trial court was, on said date, entered in said cause overruling and denying said motion.
The defendant in the court below, appellant here, prosecutes its appeal to this court and assigns as error the refusal of the trial court to give to the jury the general affirmative charge, requested in -writing, in its favor, and also the judgment of the trial court overruling and denying its motion for a new trial.
In brief and argument before us, counsel for appellant concede that the real question presented for the determination of this court is whether or not the defendant in the court below was, on all the evidence introduced upon the trial of the case, entitled to the affirmative charge requested by it in writing. This concession is entirely warranted by the record before us, for, if there was error in the' refusal of said charge, it of necessity follows that there was also error in overruling and denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.
The rule is well settled in this state' thait the affirmative charge should never be given where.there is a material conflict in the evidence, or where there is evidence affording an inference adverse to the right of recovery by the party requesting the charge; and where conclusions which differently affect the result of a suit may be drawn from the evidence as a whole, the general affirmative charge in favor of either of the parties to the 'suit should not be given, although the evidence may not be in direct conflict. McCormack Harvesting Mach. Co. v. Lowe, 151 Ala. 313, 44 South. 47; Beall Bros. v. Johnstone & Hammond, 140 Ala. 339, 37 South. 297. This principal has been followed uniformly in all cases of this court and the Supreme Court.
To the same effect, also, are the eases of Chatt. S. R. Co. v. Daniel, 122 Ala. 362, 25 South. 197; Anderson v. Birmingham Min. R. Co., 109 Ala. 128, 19 South. 519.
“This policy shall not lapse for nonpayment of premiums until the premiums for four (4) weeks are in arrears; the insured, however, shall not be entitled to sick or accident benefits when premium payments are in arrears for two' (2) weeks or more, and the subsequent payment of such arrears shall not entitle the insured to benefits for sickness or disability beginning or occurring during- the period of such arrears.”
Another condition in said policy, and expressed in the seventh paragraph thereof, was that agents of the company were not authorized and had no power to waive forfeitures or to receive premiums on policies in arrears more than four weeks. It is insisted by the appellant that the evidenc'e introduced upon the trial of the case in the ccurt below shows without conflict that on September 13, 1920, at the time appellee was injured, he had not paid his weekly premiums which were due on August 30th and 'September 6th, preceding, and therefore, under the 4th paragraph of conditions in the insurance policy, as above set out, he was not entitled to any sick or accident benefits for the disability arising from said injury. The condition expressed in the policy is that “the in- *49 sur ed shall not be entitled to sick or accident benefits when premium payments are in arrears for two (2) weeks or more,” and the premium .receipt book shows that a weekly premium was due on August 30th and September 6th, and that payment of these two premiums was made on .September 13th. Now the premium due August 30th was due on that date and during all of that entire day. It did not become in arrears until the expiration of that day, and consequently, on September 13th, the premium due August 30th preceding was not in arrears for “two (2) weeks or more” until the expiration of the 13th day of September. The premium due Séptember 6th was likewise not in arrears for “two (2) weeks or more” on September 13th.
In our opinion, this was as far as the trial court could have gone in its charge to. the jury upon the whole evidence.
The trial court overruled the motion for a new trial, and we think properly so, which motion, among other things, alleged that the verdict oí the jury was contrary to the evidence, contrary to the overwhelming preponderance of >-the testimony, and contrary -to the overwhelming weight of the testimony.
We' find no error in the record, and the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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