Claver v. Woodmen of the World

• Decision Date: 02 January 1911
• Citation: 152 Mo. App. 155,133 S.W. 153
• Parties: CLAVER et al. v. WOODMEN OF THE WORLD.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

133 S.W. 153

152 Mo. A. 155

CLAVER et al. v. WOODMEN OF THE WORLD.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

January 2, 1911.

1. INSURANCE (§ 688) — FRATERNAL SOCIETIES — LAW GOVERNING CONTRACTS.

The general insurance laws of the state have no application to the contract of a fraternal society, authorized to do business in the state, contained in a death benefit certificate issued by it.

2. INSURANCE (§ 723) — WARRANTIES.

Answers of an applicant for a death benefit certificate, in a fraternal society, expressly made warranties by the application and certificate, must be strictly true according to the intention of the parties, without regard to their materiality.

3. INSURANCE (§ 723) — LIFE INSURANCE — APPLICATION — QUESTIONS AS TO HEREDITARY DISEASES.

The question, in an application for a death benefit certificate in a fraternal society, "Have any of your parents or grandparents, uncles or aunts, been subject to consumption, cancer, gout, scrofula, insanity, or any other hereditary disease," is intended to refer to only hereditary diseases, or diseases the tendency to contract which is hereditary; and is not intended to seek information as to insanity brought on by disease and senility, so that the answer "No" is truthful, notwithstanding the insanity of applicant's mother so brought on.

4. INSURANCE (§ 726) — LIFE INSURANCE — APPLICATION — AMBIGUOUS QUESTIONS.

If a question in an application for a death benefit certificate in a fraternal society, the answer to which is made a warranty, be ambigious, it will be given the meaning most favorable to insured.

5. INSURANCE (§ 817) — LIFE INSURANCE — SUICIDE — PRESUMPTION.

The presumption, in an action on a death benefit certificate, is that insured did not commit suicide, so that insurer has the burden of overcoming it.

6. INSURANCE (§ 825) — LIFE INSURANCE — SUICIDE — EVIDENCE.

Evidence as to suicide in an action on a death benefit certificate held to make a case for the jury.

Action by Ethel N. Claver and another, an infant, by next friend, against the Woodmen of the World. Judgment for plaintiffs. Defendant brings error. Affirmed.

B. J. Casteel, for appellant. Brewster, Ferrell & Mayer, for respondent.

JOHNSON, J.

This suit is on a death benefit certificate issued to John B. Claver, November 30, 1907, by defendant, a foreign, fraternal beneficiary society, duly authorized to transact business in this state. The assured died in St. Joseph July 5, 1908, and defendant denied liability on two grounds, viz., first, a breach of warranty in the answer of the assured to a question in the application, and, second, the suicide of the assured in violation of the terms of the certificate. A trial to a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiffs, and the cause is before us on writ of error sued out by defendant.

The certificate stated that it was "issued in consideration of the representations, agreements, and warranties made by the person named herein in his application to become a member," and the application signed by Claver contained the following warranties and agreements: "I hereby certify and agree and warrant that all the statements, representations, and answers in this application * * * are full, complete, and true. * * * I agree that in the event of my death by my own hand or act, whether I am at the time sane or insane, then my beneficiary certificate in said order shall be null and void and of no effect, and all my rights and benefits which may have accrued on account thereof shall be absolutely forfeited." Among the questions and answers in the application are these: "Have any of your parents or grandparents, uncles or aunts, been subject to consumption, cancer, gout, scrofula, insanity, or any other hereditary disease, or committed suicide?" Answered, "No."

The fact is undisputed that in May, 1907, six months before the application for the certificate in question, the mother of the applicant was pronounced insane and sent to the state hospital at St. Joseph, where she died August 2, 1908. She was 71 years old and had been in good health until some 10 weeks before her admission to the hospital. In that period she had suffered from typhoid fever, from a stroke of apoplexy, and from a most severe stroke of paralysis. Evidently her dementia was caused by the ravages of these diseases on a body and mind afflicted by senile decay. There is no suggestion in the evidence that it was due in any degree to hereditary taint.

Facts in evidence pertinent to the issue of suicide thus may be stated: Claver drove a mail wagon for a morning newspaper published in St. Joseph, and on the night of his death reported for duty at 11 o'clock p. m., the usual hour. He had been complaining of sickness at the stomach for two or three weeks and had been taking medicine. He looked like a sick man to the clerk in charge of the mailing room, and at 4 o'clock he said he felt too ill to go out on the mail wagon, and the mailing clerk went out in his place.

The clerk testified: "I left there to make the trip about 20 minutes past 4 o'clock. Returned shortly after 6 a. m. When I got back he was in the office, which is in the basement. He was lying on a bench. He said, `I am sorry that you had to make that South St. Joseph trip for me. I don't want to go down there; it is all over now.' I finished up my reports. We started for home. I met him out in front of the office against. I went on; as we walked down the street, he says, `Mitchell I was not drunk this morning.' I says, `I know it; what is the matter with you anyway?' `My stomach is bothering me.' `Why do you not get a doctor?' `I don't know that it would do anybody any good.' * * * I left Claver on Edmond street." On cross-examination, the witness said: "There was nothing unusual about Claver being in the basement. It was where the men worked that were employed by the Gazette. It was lighted. I walked down with him to Berger's, about a block from the Gazette office, about 6:30 or 7:00 a. m. * * * He acted like a sick man. He kind of moped around instead of being lively. He acted as if he were suffering pain. Like I would act if I were suffering intensely from some sickness. There was nothing in his demeanor that he was going to commit suicide."

After separating from the mailing clerk, Claver evidently returned to the mailing room, for at 7 o'clock his groans attracted other employés to the place and he was found lying on the floor in a dying condition.

The coroner testified: "I held a post mortem examination on him and found the stomach containing carbolic acid, I thought in sufficient quantity to produce death. There was no burning on his lips, on the outside of his mouth. His lips were not burned, but very little; but down his tongue, further on his tongue, he had been burned some, and, as far as I could see, down his throat. But outside on his...