Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Betz

• Decision Date: 22 December 1906
• Citation: 99 S.W. 1140
• Parties: METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. v. BETZ.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 1140

99 S.W. 1140

METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. v. BETZ.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

December 22, 1906.

Rehearing Denied February 21, 1907.

Error from Harris County Court; Blake Dupree, Judge.

Suit by William Betz, administrator of the estate of Charles W. Bathe, deceased, against the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant brings error. Reversed and rendered.

Wilson & Dabney and Locke & Locke, for plaintiff in error. J. V. Meek, for defendant in error.

PLEASANTS, J.

This suit was brought by Wm. Betz, administrator of the estate of Charles W. Bathe, deceased, against the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to recover upon a policy for $500 issued on the life of the said Bathe. The company defended on the ground that Bathe was not in good health at the time the policy was delivered and the premium paid, and therefore said policy by its terms did not become an obligation of the company; and, further, that Bathe had made misstatements in his application for the policy which rendered it void. The trial below was to the court and resulted in a judgment in favor of plaintiff for the amount of the policy, with interest, penalty, and cost.

We deduce from the record the following facts: Bathe made a written and printed application to the company for the policy in suit February 10, 1905, and on the same date he was examined by Dr. F. B. Hogg, the company's medical examiner at Houston. The policy was issued under date of March 14, 1905. A copy of the application was attached to the policy, and by a clause appearing upon the face of the policy was made a part of the contract. Upon the face of the policy appeared, also, the following provision: "No obligation is assumed by the company until the first premium has been paid, nor prior to this date, nor unless upon the delivery of this policy the insured is alive and in sound health." Part C of the application contained over the signature of the applicant the following clause: "I further agree that the company shall incur no liability under this application until it has been received, approved and the policy issued and delivered and the premium has actually been paid to and accepted by the company during my life time and while I am in good health." Mrs. Betz, wife of the plaintiff and mother-in-law of Bathe, and a beneficiary under his will, testified that the policy was delivered to her by the company's agent on March 23, 1905, and that she paid the first year's premium on it, and delivered it to Bathe upon his return home, he being at that time a member of her family, and being at work on his lot in the cemetery when the agent called. She said that until about April 15th he was robust and in good health, making no complaints. About that time he brought to her some medicine which she understood had been prescribed by Dr. Kyle. Bathe died May 16, 1905, from a species of nephritis, commonly known as "Bright's disease" of the kidneys, complicated with some trouble of the heart. Dr. J. B. York was his attending physician at the time of his death, and had been since May 9th, having succeeded Dr. J. A. Kyle in the treatment of the case at that time. In Dr. York's opinion Bathe had been suffering at least two or three months from Bright's disease at the time he was first called in to attend the...