Knock v. Security Benefit Ass'n
Knock v. Security Benefit Ass'n
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action to recover on a fraternal insurance certificate. In January, 1921, the defendant issued to Cecil Knock a certificate of insurance which provided, among other appropriate recitals and reservations, that if the holder at the time of his death was a member of the defendant’s fraternal society in good standing, it would pay to Irvin B. Knock, father of the assured, the sum of $1,000.
To maintain his good standing it was necessary that the assure„d should make certain payments of assessments due on the first day of each month §nd that these should be paid not later than the last •day of each month; and if the assured fell in arrears in his payments of assessments he would be suspended; but if he would pay up such arrearages within sixty days and if he were in good health at the time of such belated payments he would be reinstated.
Cecil Knock died on December 10, 1921. Defendant resisted payment of the insurance on the ground that the assured was suspended for nonpayment of his October assessment, and that a pay
The evidence tended strongly to support the defense, and the evidence for the plaintiff was meager and not very convincing. However, the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff, and answered special questions, viz.:
“Q. 1. What disease, if any, -caused the death of Cecil Knock? A. 1. Typhoid fever.
“Q. 2. Was Cecil Knock sick on December 6th, 1921? A. 2. Yes.
“Q. 3. Was the deceased operated on for perforation of the bowels, and if so, when? A. 3. Yes, Dec. 6th.
“Q. 4. If you answer the last question in the affirmative, what was the cause of such perforation? A. 4. Typhoid.
“Q. 5. How long does typhoid fever run before perforation of bowels takes place? A. 5. One day or any time thereafter.
“Q. 6. When was the deceased’s October 1921 assessment paid to the 'financier of defendant company at Independence, Kansas? A. 6. Nov. 30, 1921.
“Q. 7. At the time this assessment was paid, had said financier been informed, or did she know of the illness of said Cecil Knock? A; 7. No.”
Judgment was entered accordingly.
Defendant appeals, presenting an abstract of 100 pages and an exhaustive brief in support of its assignment of errors; but it all narrows down to this: Can this court say from the record that there was no jury question to be determined?
The court is constrained to hold that this controlling question must be answered in the negative. There was some evidence that the dead man’s assessments were paid on November 30. The defendant’s receipt for payment of assessments for October, November and December bears that date. A photographic copy of the receipt is presented to us and it might seem that the date, 11/30, is written over another date which is only partially erased, and which a jury might discern to have been originally 12/6, meaning December 6, as the date of payment; and that would correspond with the testimony of the witness who swore he paid the overdue assessments ort December 5 or December 6, four or five days before the assured died. But the date of payment was a jury question, and the weight to be attached to the erasure in the receipt, if there was an erasure, and what were the partially erased underlying figures
Fault is found with one of the instructions to the jury in that it assumes that the assured had been reinstated. Other instructions fully covered the question of reinstatement. Defendant’s criticism of the instruction is without merit. (Burgess v. Center Township, ante, 346, 349, 223 Pac. 475; Glahn v. Mastin, ante, p. 557, syl. ¶ 2, 224 Pac. 68.)
And that is all there is to discuss in this lawsuit. This court does not have the broad plenary power of the district court to set a verdict of a jury aside when there is some substantial evidence— though little worthy of credence — to support the verdict. (Butler v. Milner, 101 Kan. 264, 266, 267, 166 Pac. 478; Shore v. Shore, 111 Kan. 101, syl. ¶ 1, 205 Pac. 1027; The State v. Frey, 111 Kan. 798, 802, 208 Pac. 374.)
There is no error in the record which would permit a reversal of this case without unsettling the established limits of appellate jurisdiction; we have therefore no alternative but to affirm the judgment.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.