Beglin v. Metro. Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 10 February 1903
• Citation: 66 N.E. 102,173 N.Y. 374
• Parties: BEGLIN v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

173 N.Y. 374

66 N.E. 102

BEGLIN

v.METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Feb. 10, 1903.

Appeal from supreme court, appellate division, Third department.

Action by James J. Beglin, administrator of Catherine T. Beglin, against the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. From a judgment of the appellate division (66 N. Y. Supp. 206) affirming a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Harold D. Alexander, for appellant.

John De Witt Peltz, for respondent.

HAIGHT, J.

This action was brought to recover on a policy of insurance issued by the United States Industrial Company on the life of Catherine T. Beglin, and assumed by the defendant according to its terms. The policy was issued on the 10th day of April, 1897, and Catherine T. Beglin died on the 12th day of June, 1899. The written application for insurance contained, among other questions, the following: ‘Has either parent or any brother or sister died of consumption or any pulmonary or constitutional disease?’ To this question the applicant answered in the negative. Under the terms of the application the answers to questions were made warranties, and it is now claimed on behalf of the defendant that the answer made to that question was incorrect, and that, therefore, the plaintiff cannot recover. Upon the trial the defendant offered in evidence a certified copy of the records of the board of health of the city of Albany for the month of January, 1889, and this was followed by an offer of the original record. The receipt of these records was objected to upon the ground that they were hearsay. The objection was overruled, and an exception was taken. The records were to the effect that Esther Horan, who was the mother of Catherine T. Beglin, died in the city of Albany on the 2d day of January, 1889, and that the chief cause of death was phthisis pulmonalis. This was the only testimony given as to the cause of death of the mother of the petitioner. Upon the trial the court sound as a fact that the mother of Catherine T. Beglin died of consumption, and that, consequently, her administrator could not recover upon the policy of insurance. A question appears to have arisen in the court below as to whether the general statute relating to public health was in force in the city of Albany, or chapter 297 of the Laws of 1885, which was a local statute. We shall not stop to consider that question, but shall assume that the general statute was in force, and that it...