Lewis v. Metropolitan Life Insurance
Lewis v. Metropolitan Life Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff brings this action upon an insurance policy on the life of Anna C. Lewis, his deceased wife. The written application of Anna C. Lewis, for the insurance, which was attached to and became a part of the policy, was dated April 3, 1908, and the policy was issued on the ninth day of the same month. The application contained the following statements which are conceded to have been material to the risk, and being warranties, if untrue would avoid the policy. “(2) I have never had any of the following complaints or diseases (inter alia) diabetes. (3) I am now in sound
The proofs of death furnished after the death of the insured by the plaintiff to the defendant contained the following statements; “(4) Cause of death diabetes melitus. (9) Upon what date did deceased first consult a physician for last sickness? January 4th, 1908. (12) What was the duration of deceased’s last sickness? Four months.” If these statements contained in the proofs of death were correct, then the insured had diabetes at the time she made her application, she was not then in sound health, and the disease for which Dr. Drake attended her was not headache but diabetes. These things constituted a breach of the warranties, above quoted, contained in the application and would invalidate the policy. These recitals of the proofs of death were evidence in favor of the defendant company. Such statements, however, were not conclusive upon the plaintiff. It was competent for him to explain, qualify or contradict them: Holleran v. Life Ins. Co., 18 Pa. Super. Ct. 573; Siebelist v. Life Insurance Co., 19 Pa. Super. Ct. 221; Baldi v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 24 Pa. Super. Ct. 275, and 30 Pa. Super. Ct. 215.
The plaintiff in presenting his case had not offered the proofs of death in evidence generally, but only for the specific purpose of showing that proofs of death had been furnished, as the condition precedent to bringing the action. The defendant company in presenting its case offered the proofs of death in evidence generally and called as witnesses two physicians whose testimony tended to establish that the deceased must have been suffering from diabetes at the time she made her application for insurance, although there was nothing to indi
Upon the question as to the exact date when Dr. Drake and Dr. Whitney, in consultation, saw the deceased, we incline to the opinion that the weight of the evidence indicates that it must have been about the last of April instead of the last of March, 1908, and that the physicians are no doubt honestly mistaken upon that point. Dr. Whitney testified that it was impossible for him to state how long the insured had been suffering from the disease prior to the time he saw her; so that in the last analysis the defense that the insured had diabetes at the time she made her application is dependent upon the testimony of Dr. Drake, who said that she had been suffering from the disease from January 4 prior to her death. The plaintiff having testified that Dr. Drake had explicitly declared to him that his wife did not have the disease in the preceding January, and a number of witnesses, including the physician of the defendant, who had examined her, having testified that she was in good health at the time of the application, early in April, the question whether she had in fact been suffering from diabetes at or prior to the date of her application for insurance was for the jury: Proctor v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 20 Pa. Super. Ct. 524. The learned judge of the court below left that question to the jury with proper instructions as to the effect to be given the proofs of death which the plaintiff had fur
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.