Miller v. Union Central Life Insurance
Miller v. Union Central Life Insurance
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
No question of law was raised upon the trial in the circuit court, and the judgment of the Appellate Court, affirming that of the circuit court, conclusively settles all questions of controverted fact against appellant. (Edgerton v. Weaver et al. 105 Ill. 43.) We are not, therefore, authorized to assume, here, either that there was a payment of the last installment of premium due at the date of the death of the assured, or a waiver of the forfeiture resulting from the failure to make that payment. We can not, as against the conclusions of fact settled by the judgment of affirmance of the Appellate Court, assume that any agent of the appellant was authorized either to waive a forfeiture already accrued, or to make a renewal contract of insurance. A waiver presupposes knowledge of the right waived, and is not to be inferred from a purely negligent act, or one done under a misapprehension of the real condition of the rights of the parties at the time; and a renewal contract of insurance necessarily requires the continued existence of that which is insured. The payment by Farnham, which was made by him and received by the company in ignorance of the fact that Miller was then dead, could, then, amount to nothing, and appellant acquired no rights thereby.
The judgment is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Harriet Miller v. The Union Central Life Insurance Company
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Appeal—reviewing controverted questions of fact—effect of affirmance by Appellate Court. Where a judgment of the trial court, in an action of assumpsit upon a policy of life insurance, for the defendant, is affirmed by the Appellate Court, this will settle all controverted questions of fact against the plaintiff, and this court, on appeal, can not assume that any agent of the defendant was authorized either to waive a forfeiture already accrued, or to make a renewal contract of insurance. 2. Insurance—waiver of forfeiture—renewal of policy. A waiver of a right presupposes knowledge of the right waived, and is not to be inferred from a merely negligent act, or one done under a misapprehension of the real condition of the rights of the parties at the time; and a renewal contract of insurance necessarily requires the continued existence of that which is insured. 3. Same—life insurance—payment of premium after death of the assured. A person whose life was insured, on demand refused to pay the second annual premium, and died in about ten days after default in payment. Two days after the death, a subordinate agent of the company, and friend of the assured, being ignorant of his death, paid the premium, taking the insurance company’s receipt renewing the policy. On learning of the death of the assured, the friend returned the receipt to the company, and it returned the money paid by him: Held, that the payment by such friend, which was made, and received by the company, in ignorance of the fact of the death of the assured, could then amount to nothing, and that the party to whom the policy was payable acquired no rights thereby.