Mixon v. Sovereign Camp, W. O. W

• Decision Date: 06 January 1930
• Docket Number: 28291
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: MIXON v. SOVEREIGN CAMP, W. O. W

125 So. 413

155 Miss. 841

MIXON v. SOVEREIGN CAMP, W. O. W

No. 28291

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 6, 1930

Division B

APPEAL from chancery court of Hinds county, First district HON. V J. STRICKER, Chancellor.

Action by Mrs. Minnie P. Mixon against Sovereign Camp, W. O. W. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed.

Ross R Barnett, of Jackson, for appellant.

When an insurance company has in its possession any funds belonging to the insured and the insured dies owing unto sad company a certain amount of money for premiums, then it is the duty of the insurance company to take the amount of money which it has in its possession belonging to the insured and to apply same towards the payment of any premiums which the insured may be due the insurance company at the time of his death.

National Life Insurance Company of Washington, D. C., v. Sparrow, 118 So. 195; Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Breland, 117 Miss. 478; 28 Cent. Digest, 1907.

Where an insurance company adopts a method and makes it a practice and a custom to pay dividends and by its practice and custom honestly leads its policyholder to believe that it will continue the practice and custom, it is thereby estopped in asserting that it has abandoned its former practice and custom.

Sovereign Camp W. O. W. v. Newsom, 141 P. 273; Kozlak v. Polish National Alliance, 145, Minn. 247; Holliday v. Equitable Life Insurance Society, 209 N.W. 965.

Watkins, Watkins & Eager, of Jackson, for appellee.

Suspension under the contract sued on is self-executing.

Independent Order, etc., v. Montcrief, 50 So. 559; W. O. W. v. Hynde (Miss.), 99 So. 259.

The member is charged with knowledge of his contract and the Constitution, Laws and By-Laws of the Order.

Odd Fellows Benev. Association v. Smith, 101 Miss. 332, 58 So. 100; W. O. W. v. Prince, 14 Miss. 381, 106 So. 521; Praetorians v. Griffin (Miss.), 118 So. 175.

The fact that the deceased became ill on November 17, 1927, and was thereafter mentally and physically incapable of attending to business, did not relieve him of complying with the provisions of his beneficiary certificate.

Supreme Lodge K. of P. v. Quinn, 78 Miss. 525, 29 So. 826; Kilgore v. Loyal Protective Association (N. H.), 102 A. 234; Sheridan v. M. W. A., 87 P. 127.

Argued orally by Ross R. Barnett, for appellant, and by P. H. Eager, Jr., for appellee.

OPINION

Griffith, J.

On April 16, 1920, there was issued by appellee to Dewey L. Mixon a policy of life insurance with appellant as beneficiary therein. The appellee, hereinafter referred to as the "Camp," is a fraternal order, and the policy is termed a "Universal whole life certificate." The certificate provided for the payment of a fixed monthly sum as a premium requirement, and further provided that in case of a failure to pay the said sum on or before the last day of each succeeding month the insured member "shall stand suspended and his beneficiary certificate shall be void."

The insured, Dewey L. Mixon, faithfully carried his said membership and beneficiary certificate until the month of November, 1927. On the 17th day of said month, while the said insurance was in full force, the said insured became seriously ill and was never thereafter at any time physically or mentally capable of attending to any sort of business, and of this illness he died on December 18, 1927. The premium amounting to less than two dollars due in November, 1927, was not paid, so that under the strict terms of the so-called certificate or policy the same became on and after December 1, 1927 of no further force or effect, and the said Camp refused payment of the insurance.

It appears that the amounts of the monthly premiums were fixed according to a uniform scale, based upon the respective ages of the certificate holders, and at a sum safely sufficient to cover all reasonably probable contingencies. The experiences of the Camp had been such that beginning with the year 1920, the Camp had been able to refund annually to its members an amount equal to one monthly premium, and from and including that year down to 1996, this refund had been declared as a dividend, so called, and had been remitted every year to the members by check.

However, for the year 1926, that is to say, out of the earnings of the Camp for 1926, there was a surplus safely sufficient to make an amount equal to two monthly premiums or installments, and on December 31, 1926, the Camp wrote to all its members a fully explanatory letter, setting forth the facts, but notifying them that a change in the manner of the administration of this surplus earnings fund was being made, and in this letter there was, among other statements to the like effect, a paragraph which fairly summarizes what the Camp proposed to do, and in fact had done, with this surplus. That paragraph is as follows:

"Instead of paying this increased refund in cash, which required the writing of hundreds of thousands of checks and a tremendous amount of bookkeeping and general labor, as well as postage, and realizing that a great majority of our members are not carrying as much insurance as present-day conditions require, we have determined to give each member an amount of 'paid-up' insurance equal to that which two monthly installments would purchase at his present age. There will be no charge whatever for this insurance--it will simply be added to your certificate, and at the maturity of your certificate the additional amount will be paid to your beneficiaries."

There was inclosed with this letter the following paid-up certificate:

"Woodmen of the World Paid-Up Certificate No. 354679. The Sovereign Camp of the Woodmen of the World hereby certifies that the owner hereof has been granted paid-up...