Hartford Life Ins Co v. Blincoe, 161

• Decision Date: 28 February 1921
• Docket Number: No. 161,161
• Citation: 41 S.Ct. 276,65 L.Ed. 549,255 U.S. 129
• Parties: HARTFORD LIFE INS. CO. v. BLINCOE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

255 U.S. 129

41 S.Ct. 276

65 L.Ed. 549

HARTFORD LIFE INS. CO.

v BLINCOE.

No. 161.

Argued Jan. 20, 1921.

Decided Feb. 28, 1921.

Messrs. Frederick W. Lehmann and James C. Jones, both of St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 130-133 intentionally omitted] Mr. Charles E. Morrow, of St. Louis, Mo., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McKENNA delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is the second writ of error in this case. The opinion upon the first writ is reported in 245 U. S. 146, 38 Sup. Ct. 54, 62 L. Ed. 208. The suit here is, as it was there, upon a certificate of qualified life insurance, issued to Frank Barber and payable at his death to his wife, the plaintiff, who has since died, and her administratrix has been substituted as defendant in error.

The defense here is, as it was there, that Barber failed to pay the mortuary assessment levied January 29, 1910, known as quarterly call No. 126, and that the failure voided the policy by its terms.

In that case Mrs. Barber recovered judgment, which we reversed on the ground that in rendering it the state court disregarded a judgment of a Connecticut court which had jurisdiction of the subject-matter and the parties, including Barber.

Upon the return of the case to the state court a new trial was had, that resulted again in a verdict and judgment for Mrs. Barber. They were affirmed by the Supreme Court of the state. Barber v. Hartford Life Ins. Co., 279 Mo. 318, 214 S. W. 207.

To that affirmance this writ of error is directed, and the question presented is: Did the Supreme Court proceed in consonance with our decision? The extent of our decision is therefore necessary to consider, and what it directed. The determination is in the issue that was presented and passed upon.

By reference to the report of the case (245 U. S. 146, 38 Sup. Ct. 54, 62 L. Ed. 208) it will be seen that the Supreme Court rested the judgment reviewed on the invalidity of the assessment and that the nonpayment of the latter did not, upon two grounds, work a forfeiture of the insurance: (1) Under the condition of the funds of the company the assessment was for a larger amount than was necessary to pay death losses; (2) the charter of the company required all its affairs to be managed and controlled by a board of not less than seven directors, and that the assessment was not levied by the board. These rulings we held to be 'in the teeth of the Connecticut adjudication, which held that it was proper and reasonable for the company to hold and even collect in advance, in order to enable it to pay losses properly.' It was hence decided that the trial court in rendering judgment against the Hartford Company, and the Supreme Court in affirming the judgment, did not give 'full faith and credit to the Connecticut record.' The reasons for the conclusion we need not repeat.

With this ruling the Supreme Court was confronted upon its reconsideration of the case and the freedom of decision that remained to it, and resolved that we had left untouched any consideration of the elements constituting the assessment, and that it was at liberty to decide, and decided, that a tax, asserted by the company to have been imposed by the laws of Missouri, had been unlawfully included in the assessment and that, therefore, the assessment was void and its nonpayment did not work a forfeiture of Barber's insurance. To the contention of the company that such holding was precluded by our opinion, it was replied that the matter presented purely a question arising under the laws of the state and that this court 'did not intend by its judgment to adjudicate to the contrary.'

The decision of the court that the Hartford Company was not subject to the tax that it had included in its assessment was not new. It was a repetition of the ruling made in Northwestern Masonic Aid Association v. Waddill, 138 Mo. 628, 40 S. W. 648, in 1897, and should have been known to the Hartford Life Insurance Company at the time it made the assessment and mortuary call. The ruling has been again repeated in Young v. Hartford Co., 277 Mo. 694, 211 S. W. 1, and upon the authority of those cases the court decided that the tax was not applicable to companies doing business on the assessment plan, and that on that plan the Hartford Company was doing business.

The Hartford Company contests the latter ruling, and as dependent upon it, the other ruling, that is, that the company was not subject to the tax, and asserts besides that the effect of the inclusion of the tax in the assessment was presented to this court on the former writ of error and whether it was authorized by the Connecticut decree, and that the answers were in the affirmative; in other words, passed...