Travelers' Ins. Co. v. Whitman
Travelers' Ins. Co. v. Whitman
Opinion of the Court
The case was tried on two counts of the complaint, declaring upon a policy of accident insurance, to which demurrer was assigned.
In Pacific Mut. L. Ins. Co. v. Shields, supra (182 Ala. 108, 62 South. 72) Mr. Justice May-field observed of the sufficiency of' averment that—
“While the complaint does not, in its allegations, follow the terms of the policy ipsissimis verbis, it does aver that .the death of the insured was the result of an ‘accidental injury independent of all other causes.’ This we think was sufficient. It was unnecessary to aver the exact language of the policy.”
In Shields’ Case all the justices concurred.
It is true that Nat. L. & A. Ins. Co. v. Lokey, 166 Ala. 174, 177, 178, 52 South. 45, 46, contains the expression:
“A policy which insures against death resulting directly and independently of all other causes from bodily injuries effected through external, violent, and accidental means, though in a sense a policy of life insurance, is not the sort of policy contemplated in form 12 of section 5283 of the Code, nor does it evidence the character of contract men have in mind when they speak of life insurance.”
Vet Mr. Justice Sayre expressly stated that the complaint (being discussed) followed the form laid down in the Code as for an action on a policy of life insurance:
“But the second count of the complaint states an action on a policy of accident insurance, * * * and under this count the policy offered was admissible in evidence.”
In the instant case counts 2 and 3 did not follow the Code form and declare as on a policy of life insurance, but on a policy insuring against death by accidental means, and aver that within the life of the policy the death of the assured occurred as the result of such accidental means. The Lokey and Shields Cases are not in conflict.
Appropriate assignments of error challenge the action of the trial court in sustaining demurrer “to plea 12 as amended.” In its original form the plea was to the effect that the application to defendant by the insured for the policy sued on, by the terms of the policy, is made a part thereof; and in said application it is provided that the falsity of any statement contained therein shall “bar the right to recover if such statement is made with intent to deceive or materially affects either the acceptance of the risk or the hazard assumed by the company”; and it is further averred that in said application for insurance the insured made the statement that no application ever made by him for life, health, or accident insurance had been declined, and it is averred that said statement was false in this:
“Prior to said application to said defendant, the insured had made application for life insurance to a brotherhood society the name of which is unknown to defendant, and said application was declined. And defendant avers that the said statement made to the defendant in said application to defendant for insurance was made with intent to deceive defendant, and did deceive defendant.”
To this plea demurrer was sustained, several grounds of which were that the plea fails to show that any application for life, health, or accident insurance made by assured had been declined, and that it is not alleged when and where the insured had made any application for any insurance which had been declined. Thereafter the record contains this recital:
“Defendant amends plea No. 12 after demurrer sustained by averring the insurance applied for by the said Vines in said benevolent order or society was for life insurance on his life, and the application was made within 12 months prior to the application for the policy sued on the time being otherwise unknown to the defendant. The defendant hereby tenders to the plaintiff and pays into court the sum of $.12, being the amount of premiums paid by the said W. P. Vines, with interest thereon.”
The amendment of the judgment nunc pro tune shows that, after plaintiff’s demurrers to pleas 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were sustained, defendant filed pleas 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15; and that, when demurrers to pleas 11 and 12 were sustained, defendant filed amended pleas 11 and 12, to which demurrer was sustained. Issue was joined on counts 2 and 3, upon pleas 2, 8, 9, 13, 14, and 15, and on replications 1, 2, and 3. Thus does the record not sustain the insistence of appellee’s counsel that the demurrer sustained to plea 12 was before the last amendment or that the plea was abandoned by defendant. It is true the record fails to show the grounds on which the court rested its ruling on demurrer to that plea — the record not con *390 taining the demurrer to the plea as amended. That plaintiff assigned demurrer thereto is apparent from the recital of the judgment entry as amended nunc pro tunc.
The ,plea sought to make answer to both counts of complaint' by the averment that by the contract terms of the policy any representation made in the application procuring the same being untrue and made with the intent to deceive, or materially affect the company’s risk, rendered void the policy. As to this, the allegations of the plea were in legal effect that, in the application by which the insurance was procured, the insured represented that he had never made application for insurance in another company which was declined, but that, within 12 months of the issuance of said policy, the insured had made application for life insurance in another company which application was declined; and that such misrepresentation in said application, on which issued the instant policy, was made with intent to deceive, or that it materially affected the hazard or risk assumed by the company. Tender was made of the amount which had been paid by the insured as premiums thereon, together with interest, as required by statute. Code, § 4573; Allen v. Standard Ins. Co., 198 Ala. 522, 73 South. 897.
In Kelly v. Life Ins. Clearing Co., 113 Ala. 453, 21 South. 361, it was declared that, where the policy of life insurance contained reference to an application for insurance relating to the taking out of the insurance, the policy and the application would be considered as constituting the contract of insurance; and where, in such application, insured made statements in answer to printed questions certifying they were true, the contract stipulations of the policy being that if such statements were not true the policy of the insurance should b'e void, such statements by the insured were held as warranties, and, if untrue, rendered void the policy.
The instant plea goes further in averment, stating that the matter misrepresented in the application for insurance was made with the intent to deceive defendant, and did deceive defendant. The Kelly Case, being decided immediately before the general statute readjusting the insurance laws of the state (Gen. Acts 1896-97, pp. 1377, 1389) was adopted, February 18,1897, no doubt sections 4572, 4573, and 4583, Code 1907, or the substance thereof, were inserted in the act to. meet that announcement of the case to the effect that, notwithstanding the misstatement by insured in the application for insurance was immaterial to the risk, it was binding as warranty, defeating the policy. By section 4572 of the Code it was declared that misrepresentation in application for insurance or proof of loss shall not defeat or void the policy, or prevent its attaching, unless such misrepresentation “is made with actual intent to deceive, or unless the matter misrepresented increase the risk of loss.” This section has been recently construed by our court. Mass. Mut. L. I. Co. v. Crenshaw, 195 Ala. 263, 269, 70 South. 768, L. R. A. 19I6F, 175, note; Empire L. I. Co. v. Gee, 171 Ala. 435, 439, 55 South. 166; State L. I. Co. v. Westcott, 166 Ala. 192, 52 South. 344; Allen v. Standard Ins. Co., supra; Afro-Amer. L. I. Co. v. Adams, 195 Ala. 147, 70 South. 119; Bac. Mut. L. I. Co. v. Hayes, 200 Ala. 246, 76 South. 12; Metropolitan L. I. Co. v. Goodman, 196 Ala. 304, 71 South. 409; Amer. Nat. Ins. Co. v. Moore, 14 Ala. App. 413, 415, 70 South. 190; Nat. L. I. Co. v. Hedgecoth, 16 Ala. App. 272, 77 South. 422.
“Deceit excludes the idea of mistake, and. fraud has been tei-med a grosser species of deceit. Deceit is a fraudulent misrepresentation, by which one man deceives another’, to the injury of the latter. Where false statements are made, with intent to deceive and defraud, the necessary implication is that the person making such false statements, with such intent, has a knowledge of their falsity. Otherwise the false character of the misrepresentations, and the intent to deceive, could not coexist.”
Recent decisions by our court on deceit are Corry v. Sylvia y Cia, 192 Ala. 550, 68 South. 891, Ann. Cas. 1917E, 1052; Greil Bros. Co. v. McLain, 197 Ala. 136, 72 South. 410; Manning v. Carter, 201 Ala. 218, 77 South. 744; Prestwood v. Carlton, 162Ala.327, 50South.254.
Mr. Justice Sayre, discussing the defense sought to be interposed in Mass. Mut. L. I. Co. v. Crenshaw, supra, said that insured “failed to state the fact of his illness and *391 the attendance of a physician,” between the time of making the original application for the policy and the date of the unmodified health certificate, “not with the intent to deceive, but because he was ignorant of the serious portent of his malady and in good faith believed it to have been nothing more than a mere transitory indisposition without tendency to shorten his life or impair his native constitutional vigor,” and was not a false statement made with the intent to deceive or misrepresentation made a defense by the statute. The justice quoted approvingly, as the true rule, from Empire L. I. Co. v. Gee, 171 Ala. 435, 55 South. 166, as follows:
“Where fraudulent representations are pleaded in defense to an action on a policy of insurance, it must be shown that false statements have been made with intent to deceive, and that they related to matters intrinsically material to the risk, and that the insurer relied on them.”
This commonly accepted doctrine in this state has not been changed by statute or decision. Mass. Mut. L. I. Co. v. Crenshaw, supra (195 Ala. 269, 70 South. 768). We are of opinion that reversible error was committed in sustaining demurrer to plea 12 as last amended.
The other questions presented by the record may not arise on a retrial of the cause and are not deemed necessary to be discussed in detail. We will say, of the exception reserved to the ruling of the court on the hypothetical questions, that the subject was recently dealt with in Miller et al. v. Whittington, post, p. 406, 80 South. 499.
The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause is. remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Reported in full in the Southern Reporter; reported as a memorandum decision without opinion in 148 Ala. 671.
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