"Plaintiffs
state that the defendant, Citizens' Life Insurance
Company, is a corporation organized and existing under the
laws of the state of Kentucky, with power to sue and be
sued in its corporate name, to contract and be contracted
with, and to enter into contracts of insurance insuring the
lives of persons against death, and receive from such
persons premiums, and generally to do and perform all the
usual and necessary acts of a life insurance company
organized under the laws of the state of Kentucky. The
plaintiffs are husband and wife. Plaintiff Laura G. Boyle
is named as beneficiary of a life insurance policy issued
by the defendant hereinafter set forth, and joins and
unites herein so far as she may be interested.
"Plaintiff
Boyle G. Boyle says that: In Louisville, Ky. on the 1st day
of May, 1905, he having previously been solicited to do so,
and having complied with all the requirements to that end,
entered into a contract of insurance with the defendant.
There was issued to him by the defendant a life insurance
policy of the Citizens' Life Insurance Company, No.
940, for the sum of $10,000, payable at the death of this
plaintiff. Said policy provides that this plaintiff as the
insured shall annually pay to the defendant, the
Citizens' Life Insurance Company, the sum of $182 the
1st day of May, 1905, and on the 1st day of May in each
succeeding year for 10 years, but with one month's
grace for the payment of said premiums after the first,
less the dividends credited thereon; and may at the end of
10 years from the date of same renew said policy for a
similar period or periods of 10 years each, paying during
such following periods a rate of premium as shown upon the
company's tables for the age which the plaintiff shall
then have attained at the beginning of such period. It was
and is further provided in said policy that the premiums,
as due, may be paid in half yearly or quarterly
installments, but, should this plaintiff die during any
year, that the unpaid premiums for such year should be
deducted from the principal of such policy payable to
plaintiff's estate, and, in order to make certain the
amount payable as such semiannual or quarterly premiums, as
a part of said agreement there was attached to said policy
a table showing that the semiannual premiums due on said
policy of plaintiff amounted to the sum of $94.60, and the
quarterly premium due thereon to the sum of $48.20.
Plaintiff files herewith as part hereof said original life
insurance policy No. 940, marked Exhibit No. 1.
"As
a part of said contract of insurance, and of even date
therewith, defendant, the Citizens' Life Insurance
Company, entered into a collateral agreement with this
plaintiff, under and by the terms of which agreement the
defendant promised and agreed in consideration of this
plaintiff's becoming a member of the department of
information and inspection of said company to pay to
plaintiff the sum of 40 cents on each and every $1,000 of
premiums it received in cash during each year, on insurance
written in Kentucky, from the date of the policy up to and
including the year 1915, so long as such premiums should be
paid, said compensation to be credited upon the premium due
from plaintiff, and further provides: "The amount of
premiums received during each calendar year shall be
ascertained in January of each succeeding year, and said
compensation shall be paid each year on the anniversary of
the date of this agreement.' Said certificate of
membership in the department of information and inspection
is filed herewith, as part hereof, marked 'Exhibit No.
2.' Plaintiff has kept and performed all of the
obligations imposed upon or required of him pursuant to
said agreement of membership in the department of
information and inspection, and further paid in cash the
first annual premium on said policy of $182 on the 1st day
of May, 1906, and the 1st day of May, 1907, less the amount
of dividends or compensation to which this plaintiff was
entitled, and which he received each year under his said
appointment in said department of information and
inspection. "The defendant from the date of said
policy, and at each renewal thereafter until this year, has
given to this plaintiff notice of the time at which the
premiums due from this plaintiff to defendant were payable,
and informed this plaintiff of the amount of compensation
apportioned to this plaintiff as a member of the department
of information and inspection. The sums so allowed to
plaintiff as compensation varied greatly, and largely
increased from year to year, and plaintiff did not know,
and had no means of knowing, what sum such compensation so
allowed to this plaintiff amounted to, or how much was to
be deducted from the premium payable by him to said
company, under the terms of said life insurance policy.
"Plaintiff
says that the defendant habitually and customarily gives
notice to all of its policy holders of the time when the
premiums are payable and of the amount of compensation
apportioned to such policy holder, and during the period of
grace sends additional notice by mail and has a
representative call in person to collect such premium.
Plaintiff further says that it is the universal custom and
usage of all insurance
companies doing business in Kentucky to give notice in
writing a reasonable time before such premiums become due to
their several policy holders of the amount of such premiums,
and, when such policy holder is entitled to receive a
dividend or distribution of surplus, to advise such policy
holder from whom a premium is due of the amount apportioned
or allowed to such policy holder for such distribution of the
dividend to be credited upon such premium, and to give the
notice and make the demand during the days of grace as stated
above. Notwithstanding plaintiff's place of business is
only about a hundred yards from the defendant's chief
place of business, and plaintiff is personally acquainted
with W. H. Gregory, president of said company, and many of
its officers and agents, and said company had been informed
only three or four months ago that plaintiff did not desire
to change the form of his policy, as he was then requested to
do, and that plaintiff desired to and would keep up and renew
the policy herein sued upon, the defendant, the Citizens'
Life Insurance Company, willfully and intentionally wholly
failed to give any notice whatever of the time when his
premium herein was due or payable or the amount of
compensation apportioned the preceding January 1st on the
business written during the preceding year on which cash
premiums had been received by said company to this plaintiff,
and plaintiff did not know, and had no means of knowing, what
amount of premium it was necessary for him to pay to keep
said policy in force. He was at all times ready, willing, and
able to pay said premium when and as soon as plaintiff was
informed of the amount of compensation awarded to him,
pursuant to said contract for his services as a member of
such information and inspection department of said company.
"Plaintiff
carries, and has had for years, other policies of insurance
in other companies, and always received notice of the time
when premiums were due from such companies, as well as
heretofore from this defendant, and of the amount of the
surplus or dividends or compensation apportioned to him under
his policies, and the plaintiff relied upon being informed by
the defendant of the time when his premium was due and the
amount of the compensation which he was entitled to receive
as a credit upon such premium due for the year beginning May
1, 1908. On June 13, 1908, the president of the defendant
company called this plaintiff by telephone to know why
plaintiff had allowed his policy herein sued upon to lapse.
Plaintiff immediately responded that he did not intend to let
said policy lapse, but was waiting until the premium was due
and to ascertain the amount of compensation which would be
credited upon the premium in order to pay to the defendant
the balance. On June 15, 1908, for the first time, plaintiff
was informed of...
