Corcoran v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 05 May 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 23419.,23419. |
| Citation | 93 S.W.2d 1027 |
| Parties | CORCORAN v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, St. Francois County; Taylor Smith, Judge.
"Not to be published in State Reports."
Action by John N. Corcoran against the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
Fordyce, White, Mayne & Williams, of St. Louis, and Oliver & Oliver, of Cape Girardeau (Leroy A. Lincoln, of New York City, of counsel), for appellant.
Davis & Damron, of Farmington, and L. W. Chapman, of St. Louis, for respondent.
SUTTON, Commissioner.
This is an action on what is known as a group policy of insurance issued by defendant to St. Joseph Lead Company for the benefit of its employees. The policy provides as follows: "Upon receipt at its home office in the City of New York of due proof of any employee while insured hereunder and prior to his sixtieth birthday, has become totally and permanently disabled, as the result of bodily injury or disease, so as to be prevented thereby from engaging in any occupation and performing any work for compensation or profit, the Company will waive the payment of further premiums as to such employee, and six months after receipt of such proof, will commence to pay, in lieu of the payment of insurance at his death, monthly installments as defined below to the said employee, * * * and will continue such payments for the period provided below, should the insured continue totally and permanently disabled."
Plaintiff was in the employ of the St. Joseph Lead Company from October 24, 1923, until June 16, 1929, though it appears that the last work he did for the company was on May 30, 1929.
Plaintiff brings this action to recover two monthly installments of $43.85 each for total and permanent disability which he alleged commenced while he was insured under the policy.
The trial, with a jury, resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $87.70, and defendant appeals.
Error is assigned by defendant here for the refusal of its instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence. The assignment is put on the ground that there is not sufficient evidence to show the existence of total and permanent disability while plaintiff was insured under the policy.
In disposing of this assignment, we think it would serve no useful purpose to set out the evidence respecting plaintiff's disability. There can be no question, in view of recent decisions, that the evidence in this case amply warrants the finding that plaintiff was totally and permanently disabled, within the meaning of the disability provisions of the policy in suit, while he was insured under the policy. State ex rel. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Hostetter (Mo.Sup.) 92 S.W.(2d) 122; Moss v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. (Mo.App.) 84 S.W.(2d) 395; State ex rel. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Hostetter (Mo.Sup.) 92 S.W.(2d) 126; Farmer v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. (Mo.App.) 85 S.W.(2d) 235; Rickey v. New York Life Ins. Co. (Mo.App.) 71 S.W.(2d) 88; State ex rel. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Allen (Mo.Sup.) 85 S.W.(2d) 469; Kane v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 228 Mo.App. 649, 73 S.W.(2d) 826; Stoner v. New York Life Ins. Co. (Mo.App.) 90 S.W.(2d) 784.
Defendant insists, however, that plaintiff is not entitled to recover, for the reason that he utterly failed to show that he had made due proof of total and permanent disability, as required by the policy.
Relevant to this insistence the record shows that on March 1, 1933, plaintiff's attorney forwarded to defendant his application for total and permanent disability benefits under the policy, together with the reports of a number of physicians.
The application and reports of physicians, which were made on blanks furnished plaintiff by defendant, definitely show total and permanent disability of plaintiff existing at the time of the termination of his employment and prior thereto.
On March 9, 1933, the defendant wrote plaintiff's attorney as follows:
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