Brown v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company
| Decision Date | 07 November 1904 |
| Parties | MYRTLE BROWN, Respondent, v. PACIFIC MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Appeal from Buchanan Circuit Court.--Hon. Henry M. Ramey, Judge.
This action was brought by plaintiff against defendant on an accident policy of insurance. The facts upon which it is founded may be summarized in about this way. Plaintiff is the widow of Seldon F. Brown, who, on April 20, 1902, was a machinist in the employ of the K. C., St. J. & C. B. Railroad Company in its shops at St. Joseph, Missouri, earning wages at $ 70 per month. On that day he applied to defendant company for insurance of a kind especially provided for persons employed in industrial pursuits, who, having no present means of payment of the premiums, are wage earners and which contemplates the payment of the premiums out of wages to be earned in the future. The employment of such persons being often only temporary and there being no basis for extending them credit, certain safeguards are provided to the company, as will be hereafter observed, against default in the payments of the premiums. The material portions of Brown's application are as follows:
To provide for the payment of the premiums, Brown at the same time executed and delivered to defendant the following order on the paymaster of the railroads therein named:
Thereupon and at the same time the defendant issued to said Seldon F. Brown the policy now sued on, reciting that, "in consideration of the warranties in the application for the policy, and of an order which is to be considered an assignment of money therein specified on the paymaster of the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad," it thereby insured "Seldon F. Brown of St. Joseph, Missouri, the person named in the application for the period or periods hereinafter specified, beginning at 12 o'clock noon, standard time of the day, this policy is dated. Against bodily injuries sustained through external, violent and accidental means and will pay to him if surviving, or to Myrtle Brown his wife, or in the event of her prior death, to the executors, administrators or assigns of the insured, the indemnity provided in the schedule hereinafter contained, styled:
After providing indemnity for certain other losses, such as loss of limb, sight or loss of time, etc., the policy proceeds.
The policy is dated April 20, 1902.
No money was paid to defendant by plaintiff in the transaction. So far as the premium is concerned the sole consideration for the issuance of the policy was the agreements contained in the paymaster's order which was on or about April 20, 1902, deposited by defendant with the paymaster of the railroad and left in his possession for his use as a voucher against the deductions authorized by Brown in his order, to be made by the paymaster out of said wages.
It will be noted by reference to this order that by its terms the first deduction and payment of premium was to be made out of the wages for May, 1902. Brown worked that month for the railroad company but the custom of the company was not to pay the wages on the last of the month but on the tenth day of the month succeeding the month in which they were earned unless the employee desired to quit the service, in which case he could receive his wages at any time he demanded them. So that in this instance Brown's wages earned in May were not payable until June 10th, on which date the paymaster gave him a check dated June 1st for $ 52.47 covering his May wages less $ 3.75, the amount of the first premium payable to defendant out of the May wages. This sum was remitted by the paymaster to defendant and was received by it in due course. There is, therefore, no dispute as to the premium having been paid for the first insurance period commencing April 20, 1902, and ending June 20, 1902.
Brown continued to work for the railroad at St. Joseph until June 28th when he quit the service and asked for his "time," that is to say, his wages, earned up to that date, and on that date the paymaster issued to him what is called a "time check" showing in detail the number of hours worked by him, the price per hour and the total sum due him from the railroad company on account of wages. This time check shows that he worked in June, eight and one-half hours at twenty-two and one-half cents per hour, did 177 and one-half hours piece work, for which $ 45.29 was due him, that on account of his leaving the employ of the railroad fifteen cents was returned to him, being his contribution to the relief fund maintained by railroad employees for medical and hospital service and that the total sum due Brown on June 28th was $ 47.35. Appended to this "time check" was his receipt for that amount. Said time check and receipt were read in evidence and are as follows:
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Blyston-Spencer v. United Railways Company of St. Louis
-
Gruen v. Standard Life And Accdient Insurance Co.
...... STANDARD LIFE AND ACCDIENT INSURANCE COMPANY", Respondent Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. LouisDecember 14, 1912 . \xC2"... Co., 75 Mo.App. 310; Ritchey v. Insurance Co.,. 104 Mo.App. 146; Brown v. Insurance Co., 109 Mo.App. 137; Marshall v. Insurance Co., 148 Mo.App. ......