Baer v. State Life Insurance
Baer v. State Life Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
In this action of assumpsit the plaintiff sought to recover the amount of a policy of insurance upon the life of her husband. Payment was refused on the ground that the insured had made false representations in his application, as to his state of health, and as to the time when he had last consulted a physician. The answers alleged to be untrue are contained in the medical examiner’s report, which was filled out by the examiner and signed by the applicant. It was stipulated that these statements were part of the consideration for which the policy was issued, and it was also agreed that the policy should not take effect unless the insured was in good health when the first premium was paid. At the trial, a request by defendant for binding instructions was refused, and the case was submitted to the jury, who found a verdict for plaintiff for the full amount of the policy, with interest. Prom the judgment thereon entered, defendant has appealed, and its counsel now con
The trial judge held there was an ambiguity in questions 24, 24a, b and c, in that it Avas not clear whether they referred to an attending physician or a consulting physician, and he left it to the jury to say Avhether the applicant might not have understood them in the latter sense. If so, his answers to both 24b and 24c, “Names and addresses of consulting physicians?” were not untrue. In his attack of appendicitis, Dr. Swope was the consulting physician, or perhaps more correctly the surgeon. Question 24c refers in terms to a “consulting” physician, that is, one called by the attending physician in consultation, not to one whom the patient had consulted. As the applicant had already answered that his attending physician was Dr. Schuster, he may have taken the subsequent inquiry to refer, not to the same person, but to a consulting physician in the ordinary use of the term. Reference to the facsimile of a portion of the report inserted at the end of the appellant’s paper book shows that the medical examiner had first Avritten the name of Dr. Swope as the attending physician of the applicant, had then erased it and written over the erasure “Dr. A. R. Suster” (meaning Schuster), and had then put down Dr. Swope’s name as applicant’s consulting physician. This change indicates that both the applicant and the medical examiner interpreted the questions in the manner the jury has found they might reasonably have done. The distinction does not seem to be of any great practical importance, for the applicant gave the names of both physicians, and the defendant company could have made inquiry of each of them for particulars, had it seen fit to do so. The evidence does not show that the insured had consulted any physician other than the two named,
Complaint is made in the seventh assignment of the affirmance of plaintiff’s fifth point, in which the jury were instructed that, if made in good faith, a misrepresentation by the insured, as to consultations with Dr. Schuster at times other than those mentioned in the application, would not avoid the policy, unless the misrepresentation was a material one. The point was obscure and difficult to understand, and counsel should have been required to restate and simplify the request. It is dangerous to affirm a point which is not clear to the court, for to the jury it would present even more difficulty. We do not, however, feel that the submission of the point as presented amounted to reversible error. The instruction requested was intended to aid the jury in determining the materiality of the representation, if they
In a number of other assignments error is alleged in the admission of evidence of acquaintances that the insured was apparently in good health, and was able to attend to his business during the spring and summer of 1913. As one of the questions to be determined by the jury was whether the insured was in good health, so far as he knew or believed, when he made his application, it was competent, as having some bearing upon his own good faith and credibility, to show by witnesses, who saw him about that time, that, to ordinary observation, and to all outward appearance, he was in good health.
There is no merit in the fifteenth assignment, which alleges error in admitting, against objection, plaintiff’s testimony that at the time she signed the proofs of death, she had a nervous breakdown, and did not examine the papers for the purpose of correcting errors therein. Whether she did so or not, is immaterial, as there is no controversy as to the statements contained in the proofs of death.
The assignments of error are all overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Baer v. The State Life Insurance Company
- Cited By
- 20 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Insurance — Life insure,nee — Medical questions — Answers—Representations — Warranties. 1. Where in. an action on a life insurance policy, it appeared that it was agreed that the statements in response to the medical questions were part of the consideration for which the policy was issued, and that the policy should not take effect unless the insured was in good health when the first premium was paid, that in answering the medical questions, the insured said he was in good health as far as he knew or believed, but where it appeared that plaintiff could not have been in perfect health when he applied for the policy, the case was for the jury, where there was no evidence that plaintiff knew or had reason to believe that he was then diseased. 2. Where in such case it appeared that in response to a question whether the insured had “consulted a physician within the past year for anything trivial or otherwise, not mentioned above” and the insured replied “no,” but where there was evidence that he had consulted a physician, with reference to headaches and indigestion, the case was for the jury, where the dates of those consultations were not fixed and especially where a further question as to when the insured last consulted a physician was not answered; in any event, the credibility of the witness was for the jury. 3. Where in such case it was not clear as to whether the questions as to the names of physicians last consulted by the applicant referred to an attending physician or a consulting physician, and the applicant gave the name of a consulting physician it was proper to permit the jury to determine whether the applicant might not have understood the questions in the sense in which they wore answered, and it was not material whether or not the answer was strictly accurate where the applicant gave the names of both physicians who attended him, as in such case the company could have inquired of such physicians as to the health of the applicant. 4. Tbe report of a medical examiner is to be construed most strongly against the party by whom it is prepared, and by whose medical officer the answers to the questions are taken and written into the blanks left for that purpose. 5. Where in such case the policy provided that the statements of the insured in the absence of fraud were to be deemed representations and not warranties, the trial judge properly decided that the incorrectness of the answers to the questions did not necessarily preclude the plaintiff from recovery. 6. In such case it was not error to admit evidence of a witness who saw plaintiff about the time when the policy was issued that, to ordinary observation and outward appearances, he was in good health.