Metro. Life Ins. Co. v. Moravec

• Decision Date: 21 February 1905
• Citation: 73 N.E. 415,214 Ill. 186
• Parties: METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. v. MORAVEC.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

214 Ill. 186

73 N.E. 415

METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO.

v.MORAVEC.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 21, 1905.

Appeal from Appellate Court, First District.

Action by Vojtech Moravec against the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company on a policy of life insurance. From a judgment of the Appellate Court affirming a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Hoyne, O'Connor & Hoyne, for appellant.

V. A. Geringer, for appellee.

BOGGS, J.

This is an appeal, under a certificate of importance, from a judgment of the Appellate Court for the First District affirming a judgment in the sum of $537 entered in the superior court of Cook county in an action of assumpsit brought by the appellee against the appellant company on a policy of insurance issued to one Josepa Moravec, wife of appellee, on January 29, 1900, which said policy provided for the payment of the sum of $500 to the appellee in the event of the death of said assured. The assured departed this life January 6, 1901. To the declaration the appellant company filed the general issue and a number of special pleas. The special pleas averred, among other things, that the assured, before making her application, had heart disease and rheumatism, and had been treated for those afflications by a physician, and that the statement made before the application for the policy contained misrepresentations relative to the condition of her health and her freedom from any affection of the heart, etc., and that the company had been induced to issue the policy by said false statements and misrepresentations.

The form of the application for the insurance contained a number of printed statements of fact, followed by a blank space in which to write exceptions or explanations. Preceding those statements appeared, printed in heavy, prominent type, the following: ‘Wherever nothing is written in the following paragraphs it is agreed that the warranty is true, without exception.’ The application then contained the following: ‘To induce the said company to issue the said policy, and as consideration therefor, I warrant and agree, on behalf of myself and of any other person who shall have or claim interest in any policy issued under this application, as follows:’ Then follow a number of statements, among which are the following: ‘(2) I have never had any of the following complaints or diseases: * * * Disease of heart, * * * rheumatism, * * * except; (3) I am now in sound health, I am not blind, deaf or dumb, nor have I any physical or mental defect or infirmity of any kind, except.’ It appeared from the proofs of death furnished by the appellee that within less than one year after the issuance of the policy the assured died from ‘organic heart disease.’

The appellant company produced testimony, in substance, to the effect that the assured on the 5th day of May, 1897-two years and eight months before the policy was procured upon her life-applied to one Dr. Weintraub for medical treatment. Dr. Weintraub testified that he treated her once or twice a week for six or eight weeks. He described the examinations of her person made by him, and testified that he diagnosed her case to be permanent organic heart disease;that he prescribed and furnished medicines to her for that disease, but without any appreciable benefit, and finally reached the...