Henson v. John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co.

Decision Date01 March 1933
Docket NumberNo. 27.,27.
PartiesHENSON v. JOHN HANCOCK MUT. LIFE INS. CO.
CourtMichigan Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Appeal from Circuit Court, Genesee County; Paul V. Gadola, Judge.

Action by Roy T. Henson against the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Argued before the Entire Bench.

Joseph R. Joseph, of Flint, for appellant.

Cook, Sheppard & Stipes, of Flint, for appellee.

WIEST, Justice.

This is an action on an insurance policy, issued by defendant upon the life of plaintiff's ten year old daughter, at a time when she was suffering from inflammatory rheumatism and endocarditis, resulting in her death two months later.

Plaintiff claims that his wife signed a blank application for the insurance and fully informed the soliciting agent of the serious illness of the daughter, and the next day when an investigator for the insurance company called she so informed him and received assurance that the policy would be issued. The policy was issued upon an application containing answers directly contrary to the information claimed to have been given the agent. The court directed a verdict in behalf of defendant, and we must, therefore, accord full probative value to the testimony in behalf of plaintiff.

A palpable fraud was perpetrated on defendant by its agent. May plaintiff recover on the basis of such fraud? Had the agent stated in the application what plaintiff's wife said about the serious illness of the child, no policy would have issued and, in reason, none should have been expected by plaintiff. Assuming that the agent inserted false answers in order to procure issuance of the policy can plaintiff, upon a showing that had true answers been inserted reasons against insurance would have been stated, make the fraud of the agent ground for recovery? Insurance is a matter of contract. Fraud, beneficial to a party seeking recovery, cannot be made the basis for enforcement of the contract. This is not a case in which true answers authorized insurance and false answers were inserted by the insurance agent, but a case in which true answers did not authorize insurance and false answers were inserted by the insurance agent.

Sprinkle v. Indemnity Co., 124 N. C. 405, 32 S. E. 734, 735, was an action on an insurance policy. The applicant there gave true answers to questions and the agent put in false answers. The trial judge instructed the jury: ‘* * * If they should find that, at the time the insured made application, he informed Parker, the agent of the defendant, that he had had before that time a serious case of measles, grippe, pleurisy, and spitting of blood, and that Parker, instead of writing truthful answers to the questions concerning the health of the insured, falsified the answers of the insured, then there would be no fraud on the part of the insured; that the knowledge of Parker became the knowledge of the company; and that, if the company received the premiums, it waived all objections with regard to those matters of which it had implied knowledge.’

The court, in holding this error, stated:

‘Parker professed to be acting as the agent...

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10 cases
  • Mutual Health & Benefit Ass'n v. Cranford
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • October 15, 1934
    ... ... 55; March v ... Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 186 Pa. 629, 65 Am. St. Rep ... 887; Penn Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Mechanics Bank & Trust Co., ... Co. v. Smith, ... 92 F. 503; Henson v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co., 247 ... N.W. 102; ... ...
  • Antonia Pellon v. Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (Two Cases)
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • October 3, 1933
    ... ... Ring v ... Windsor County Mutual Fire Ins. Co. , 51 Vt ... 563, 568, 569; [105 Vt. 514] Arnhorst ... 586, 127 N.E. 315. See, also, ... Minsker v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance ... Co. , 254 N.Y. 333, 173 ... See Minsker v. John ... Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co., supra ...           On the ... 519, 29 L.Ed. 934, 6 S.Ct. 837; ... Henson v. John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co., 261 ... Mich. 693, ... ...
  • Pellon v. Conn. Gen. Life Ins. Co.
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • October 3, 1933
    ...have been procured. New York Life Insurance Co. v. Fletcher, 117 U. S. 519, 6 S. Ct. 837, 29 L. Ed. 934; Henson v. John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co., 261 Mich. 693, 247 N. W. 102. What we have said in connection with our holding that the plaintiffs are bound by the questions and answers app......
  • Northwestern Nat. Life Ins. Co. v. Nalbant
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit
    • May 15, 1941
    ...and the payment of the premium if the insured consulted a physician after his medical examination." Henson v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, 261 Mich. 693, 247 N. W. 102, was a case where "a palpable fraud was perpetrated on defendant by its agent." The Supreme Court of Michiga......
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