Maynard v. Mutual Life Ins. Co.
Decision Date | 25 July 1942 |
Parties | MAYNARD v. MUTUAL LIFE INS. CO. |
Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
E. W. Braden, of Memphis, for plaintiff in error.
Fitzhugh, Murrah & Fitzhugh, of Memphis, and Wm. Marshall Bullitt, of Louisville, Ky., for defendant in error.
On August 29, 1929, defendant, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, issued to plaintiff, James W. Maynard, an Ordinary Life Insurance policy with Disability Benefits for $25,000.00. This policy was later changed in certain respects at the request of plaintiff. These changes are not material to the present suit.
Pertinent excerpts from the policy are: "If the insured is totally and presumably permanently disabled before age 60, will pay to the insured Two Hundred Fifty Dollars monthly during such disability, besides waiving premium payments, all upon the conditions set forth in section 3."
Plaintiff became disabled in 1935, and was paid dividends by defendant equal to those received by holders of policies without disability benefits during 1935 and 1936. In 1937 defendant offered to pay plaintiff, and plaintiff refused to accept, a smaller dividend than it paid to holders of policies without disability benefits. Defendant based its action in so doing on the following grounds:
(1) The type, class or group of policies which plaintiff held proved to be extremely unprofitable. Large losses resulted which had to be absorbed by defendant in some way.
(2) Each policy of this group constituted one insurance contract with two features, death benefits and disability benefits.
(3) The equitable method for distributing the divisible surplus of defendant was to treat this group of policyholders as a class, and pay dividends to them according to their contribution to the divisible surplus of defendant as a class.
Plaintiff brought this suit to recover from defendant for a sum equal to the amount of dividends which was paid the holders of policies without disability benefits.
The trial court dismissed plaintiff's suit and plaintiff appealed to this Court and assigned errors.
On the trial of the case in the lower court, Attorney for plaintiff stated:
Plaintiff relies upon Tennessee Code, Section 6132 which provides: "No life insurance company doing business in Tennessee shall make or permit any distinction or discrimination between insurants of the same class and equal expectation of life in the amount or payment of premiums, * * * or in the dividends or other benefits payable thereon, or in any other of the terms and conditions of the contracts it makes; * * *."
Plaintiff and defendant also rely upon the following sections of the Insurance Law of New York, Consol.Laws, c. 28:
The provisions of the Tennessee Statute and the New York Statute relating to discrimination are similar.
Now if the policy issued plaintiff is divisible — that is two separate contracts, one for death benefits and another for disability benefits — the method adopted by defendant for computing dividends on plaintiff's policy would be discriminatory since plaintiff would be entitled to receive dividends under his death benefit contract (ordinary life policy) which would equal dividends received by policyholders under ordinary life policies without disability benefits.
Wherefore, the two questions presented for the determination of this Court are: (1) Is the policy which was issued plaintiff by defendant one contract or is it two separate and distinct contracts — one for death benefits only and the other for disability benefits only? And (2) Was defendant's apportionment of its divisible surplus to plaintiff and the group which he represented equitable?
In Rhine v. New York Life Insurance Company, 248 App.Div. 120, 289 N.Y.S. 117, 132, the court considered whether a similar policy was a single policy or a severable policy and said:
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Pratt v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York
... ... Penn Mut. Life Ins. Co., 7 Cir., 100 ... F.2d 560; Barnett v. Metropolitan Life Insurance ... Co., 258 A.D. 241, 16 N.Y.S.2d 198; Barnett v ... Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 285 N.Y. 627, 33 N.E.2d 554; ... Blackburn v. Home Life Ins. Co., 19 Cal.2d 226, 120 ... P.2d 31; Maynard v. Mutual Life Ins. Co., ... Tenn.Sup. 1942, 165 S.W.2d 385, cited and relied upon ... heavily by appellee in support of the trial court's ... judgment, which opinions appellee has printed in full for the ... convenience of the court ... Counsel ... for appellant cite Forman v ... ...
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