Insurance Company v. Young Administrator

• Citation: 90 U.S. 85,23 L.Ed. 152,23 Wall. 85
• Parties: INSURANCE COMPANY v. YOUNG'S ADMINISTRATOR
• Decision Date: 01 October 1874
• Court: United States Supreme Court

90 U.S. 85

23 L.Ed. 152

23 Wall. 85

INSURANCE COMPANY v. YOUNG'S ADMINISTRATOR.

October Term, 1874

ERROR to the Circuit Court for the District of California, in which court the administrator of McPherson Young, of San Francisco, sued the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (a company incorporated by the State of New York but having a general agent, one H. S. Homans, at San Francisco, and an office there for the transaction of life insurance business) to recover $5000, which the administrator alleged had been insured by the said company on the life of his decedent and not paid.

The case was submitted to the court under the act of

March 3d, 1865, without the intervention of a jury. This act enacts that parties may submit issues of fact in civil cases in this way; that the finding of the facts by the court may be general or special, 'and shall have the same effect as the verdict of a jury.' And it adds that 'when the finding is special the review may extend to the determination of the sufficiency of the facts to support the judgment.'

The case, as found by the court was thus:

On the 5th of June, 1867, the said McPherson Young made application to the said Homans, general agent as aforesaid, for an insurance of $5000 on his life, and thereupon entered into a contract with Homans, as such general agent, in these words:

'THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK.

'Received, San Francisco, June 5th, 1867, from McPherson Young, of San Francisco, California, $99.30, being the first quarter-annual premium on his application for a policy of insurance of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, for the sum of $5000 on the life of said Young, payable at forty-five or death, and premiums paid up in full in ten years; said policy of insurance to take effect and be in force from and after the date hereof, provided that said application shall be accepted by the said company; but should the same be declined or rejected by said company, then the full amount hereby paid will be returned to said applicant upon the production of this receipt.

'For the Mutual Life Insurance Company,

'H. S. HOMANS,

'General Agent for the Pacific Coast.'

The finding of the court proceeded:

'The application of the said Young was transmitted to the said company, and was by them accepted; and a policy was made out, signed, sealed, and transmitted to the general agent, who received the same about the 2d of August, 1867. But the policy did not in terms agree with the memorandum as to date and time of payment.'

The $99.30 mentioned in this receipt were not paid in money; Young simply gave his note for the amount, payable

to Homans, personally, at sixty days, which note was never paid.

By the terms of the receipt, as the reader will have noted, the policy contracted for was to take effect and be in force from the date of the receipt, that is to say, from the 5th of June, 1867. The quarterly payments would thus, of course, have been to be made on the 5th of September and the 5th of December, 1867, and on the 5th of March and the 5th of June, 1868, and so on till the ten years had expired or death had supervened. The quarterly payments, too, were to be $99.30.

The policy as issued differed from that contemplated by the receipt, in these particulars:

1st. It bore date the 5th of April, 1867, and instead of being made to take effect from the 5th of June, was made to take effect from the said preceding 5th of April.

2d. The quarterly payments were to be $96.60 instead of $99.30.

3d. The days of payment during the ten years were to be the 6th days of April, July, October, and January, instead of the 5th days of June, September, December, and March.

The policy, in which Young's age was stated to be twenty-six years, witnessed that 'in consideration of the representations made and of the sum of $96.60, to them duly paid by McPherson Young, and of the quarter-annual payment of a like amount on or before the 6th days of April, July, October, and January, in every year during the continuance of the policy, the company agreed to pay the said amount of $5000 to the said McPherson Young or his assigns, on the 6th of April, 1886, when the above-named person, whose life is hereby insured, shall have attained the age of forty-five years; or, should he die previous to attaining that age, in sixty days after the notice and proof of his death, to his executors, administrators, or assigns; the balance of the year's premium, if any, being first deducted therefrom.'

The policy contained a provision, that——

'If the said premiums shall not be paid on or before the days above mentioned for the payment thereof, . . . then in every such

case the company shall not be liable for the payment of the sum assured, or any part thereof, and this policy shall cease and determine.'

At the date of these transactions, the time required to go from New York to San Francisco—there being then no overland route was from twenty-three to thirty days.

The policy after being executed was transmitted by the company in New York to Homans at San Francisco, where it arrived on the 2d of August, 1867. With the policy were transmitted and received two receipts for premiums, assumed to be due April 6th, 1867, and July 6th, 1867, signed by one W. Stewart, secretary of the company in New York; one of them, the one for the April premium, will show the form. It was thus:

'THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK.

'BROADWAY AND LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK,

'April 6th, 1867.

'Received from McPherson Young $96.60 for the quarter-annual premium on policy No. 65,733, due the 6th of April, 1867. For terms of mutual agreement, see application and policy.

'WILLIAM STEWART,

'Secretary.

'Countersigned at _____.

'H. S. HOMANS,

'Agent.'

On this receipt, as on that for the July premium, was affixed, on the 2d of August, 1867, by the agent, Homans, a cancelled revenue stamp, and the receipts were countersigned by Homans, as indicated in the copy of the one above given.

To both the receipts was annexed a document, thus:

'NOTICE TO POLICY-HOLDERS.

'The agreement is mutual (see application and policy), that unless the premium is paid on or before the day it becomes due the policy is forfeited and void. Agents are not authorized to make, alter, or discharge contracts or waive forfeitures. Payments of premiums to agents are not valid unless receipts be given signed by the president, secretary, cashier, or actuary. When receipts are sent to agents for delivery, such agents shall countersign the same as evidence of payment to them. All premiums are due and payable at the office in New York. For the convenience of the assured they may be made to an agent, but only upon the production of the receipt above specified.

'F. S. WINSTON.

'President.'

On the 8th of August, 1867, that is to say, six days after the policy was received by the agent, Homans, he wrote to Young, addressing him at Vallejo, California, as follows:

'SAN FRANCISCO, August 8th, 1867.

'McPHERSON YOUNG, ESQ.,

'Vallejo, California.

'DEAR SIR: Your policy of insurance with the Mutual Life Insurance Company has arrived. Please inform me whether I shall send it to you at Vallejo, or if you will call and get it when you are in the city.

'H. S. HOMANS,

'General Agent.'

The case, as found, continued:

'But whether said note was delivered to or received by said Young, or when forwarded, and in what manner, does not appear from the evidence. No notice of the acceptance of said application, or of the issue and arrival of the said policy is shown to have been delivered to or received by said Young, nor was any demand made upon him for further payment, nor any receipt or notice requiring payment presented to him.'

Young was shot at Vallejo on the 21st of August, 1867;¹ and removed on the next day to an hospital in San Francisco, where he died on the 20th of September following; having, from the time that he was shot, been physically and mentally unable to attend to any business. After his death, the agent wrote 'Cancel; dead,' on the policy, and sent it with the two receipts of April 6th and July 6th for premium, attached to the policy and uncancelled, and the note for $99.30 which Young had given to the agent June 5th, 1867, to the office in New York, where the officers, on the 21st of October, cancelled the policy by tearing off the seal and cutting out the name of the president. The note for the $99.30 remained in the company's hands unpaid, but was never surrendered or offered to be surrendered to Young. The word 'cancelled' was written across its face in lead, but by whom did not appear. No subsequent premium was ever demanded by the company or paid.

Administration having been granted on the estate of Young, the administrator sued the company.

The declaration alleged that on the 5th of June, A. D. 1867, the company caused to be made a policy of assurance, purporting that, in the consideration of $99.30, then paid, being the first quarterly annual premium for the sum of $5000 of the life of McPherson Young, payable at forty-five or death, and his promise and undertaking to continue to pay thereafter to the said company, the defendant, like quarterly payments of $99.30 during the term of ten years thereafter, if he should so long live, they did assure, and agree, to and with the said McPherson, that they would pay unto him, upon his attaining the age of forty-five years, or to his executors, administrators, or assigns, in case he should die before attaining that age, the sum of $5000. And that the said McPherson, in all things, performed the agreement, and all the conditions and promises which by the terms of the said policy were by him to be performed.

The defendant pleaded the general issue, and also two special pleas:

1st. That the policy was issued and delivered to the deceased on the 6th of April, 1867; that the premium therein agreed to be paid was not paid, and had...