Carrizales v. W. O. W. Life Ins. Soc.
| Decision Date | 13 January 1943 |
| Docket Number | No. 2442-7988.,2442-7988. |
| Citation | 167 S.W.2d 509 |
| Parties | CARRIZALES v. W. O. W. LIFE INS. SOC. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Petitioner, Juan Carrizales, sued respondent, Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society, a fraternal benefit society, on a life insurance policy. A trial court judgment for petitioner was reversed and rendered by the Court of Civil Appeals at San Antonio. 159 S.W.2d 536.
Angel Puentes, the insured, was sixteen years old when he signed the policy application. Less than seven months thereafter he died.
Petitioner, beneficiary in the policy, was the head of respondent's local camp at Beeville when the policy was issued. He was the insured's great uncle. The policy was purchased at his insistence, and he paid all the premiums as they accrued. He was present when the policy application was executed to see that all its questions were correctly answered and "filled out as they were." He reminded the insured what answers to give when the latter "didn't remember."
In this application Puentes agreed that any untrue statement made therein would avoid the policy. In the face of that stipulation, he stated that he had no deceased brothers and sisters. But it was established by the testimony of petitioner himself that the insured had three deceased brothers and sisters, two of whom were born dead while the third died, nameless, a few days after her birth. The trial court so found but held that the insured reasonably considered that these babies were not his brothers and sisters because they did not live long enough to acquire given names by which to distinguish them as brothers and sisters; hence, his statement that he had no deceased brothers and sisters was true. We approve the holding of the Court of Civil Appeals that the statement was false. Common parentage makes two persons brother and sister. In the nature of things, neither span of life nor lack of given names can determine the relationship.
Petitioner urges that the statement, whether true or false, was immaterial to the risk. We might agree to that proposition but for the fact that Art. 5043, R.S. 1925, has no application to fraternal benefit societies. They are saved from the force of that statute by Art. 4823, ibid. Modern Order of Praetorians v. Hollmig, 100 Tex. 623, 103 S.W. 476; Rodriguez v. W. O. W. Life Ins. Soc., 136 Tex. 43, 145 S.W.2d 1077. The statement constituted a warranty. Kansas Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Pinson, 94 Tex. 553, 63 S.W. 531. Therefore, its materiality to the risk cannot be considered.
Citing O'Rourke v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., 23 R.I. 457, 50 A. 834, 57 L.R.A. 496, 91 Am.St.Rep. 643, a decision by the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, petitioner contends that the insured was not bound by the warranty because he was a minor when he made it; that, therefore, the warranty does not bind his beneficiary. That case does hold that during an insured's minority his warranties cannot be set up in defense to a suit on the policy; that, since they are not binding on the minor, they are, in legal effect, no part of the contract and do not estop the beneficiary unless the latter is guilty of some fraud in procuring the policy.
However, one authority declares that this is a "questionable" view. 29 Am.Jur., p. 434, § 536. Another says it is "erroneous." 14 R.C.L., p. 1034,...
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