Abraham v. Mutual Reserve Fund Life Ass'n
| Decision Date | 27 February 1903 |
| Citation | 66 N.E. 605,183 Mass. 116 |
| Parties | ABRAHAM v. MUTUAL RESERVE FUND LIFE ASS'N. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
John Noble, Jr., for plaintiff.
Victor J. Loring and Geo. Burnham, Jr., for defendant.
1. The principal question in this case is whether evidence is admissible to explain the statement in proofs of death, when the defendant has not been notified before the trial of the fact that the statement was erroneous. We do not see how this case can be distinguished from Hogan v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 164 Mass. 448, 41 N.E. 663, where such evidence was held to be admissible. The defendant in that case, as in this, relied upon the case of Campbell v Charter Oak Ins. Co., 10 Allen, 213, in which it is said that corrections of mistakes in proofs of death 'are not for the first time to be made known to the insurers at the trial of the action to recover for the loss, by the introduction of evidence showing that the statements filed were not true in a material fact, which, if it existed as stated, was fatal to the right of the insured to recover.' The court in its opinion, after stating that Campbell v. Charter Oak Ins. Co. had not been generally followed in other jurisdictions, said: 'In this commonwealth it has never been treated as enunciating a doctrine of universal application, nor extended to facts differing from its own.' The case was finally decided on the ground that, if the statements in the application were warranties, St. 1887, c. 214, § 21, re-enacted in St. 1894 c. 522, § 21, applied, and that falsity of statement would be a defense only if the matter misrepresented increased the risk, or if the statement was made with intent to deceive. This provision applies as well to a foreign corporation doing business in this commonwealth as to a domestic corporation. Dolan v. Mutual Reserve Fund Life Ass'n, 173 Mass. 197, 53 N.E. 398. See, also, Stocker v. Boston Mutual Life Assn., 170 Mass. 224, 49 N.E. 116. We are of opinion, therefore, that the evidence was rightly admitted.
2. The defendant next contends that, in the absence of any evidence offered by the plaintiff to show that the defendant was lawfully admitted to do business in this commonwealth, the contract was illegal, and the plaintiff cannot recover on it. For this proposition the defendant relies upon the case of Claflin v. United States Credit System Co., 165 Mass. 501, 43...
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