National Life & Acc. Ins. Co. of Nashville, Tenn. v. Alexander
Decision Date | 16 March 1933 |
Docket Number | 7 Div. 180. |
Citation | 147 So. 173,226 Ala. 325 |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Parties | NATIONAL LIFE & ACCIDENT INS. CO. OF NASHVILLE, TENN., v. ALEXANDER. |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Etowah County; Woodson J. Martin, Judge.
Action on a policy of life insurance by Hobart Alexander against the National Life & Accident Insurance Company, of Nashville Tenn. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.
Transferred from Court of Appeals under section 7326, Code 1923.
Reversed and remanded.
L. B Rainey, of Gadsden, for appellant.
McCord & McCord, of Gadsden, for appellee.
This is a suit upon a policy of insurance on the life of Henry Alexander and in which appellee was the beneficiary named therein.
The pleadings were in short by consent, etc.
The question of insurable interest was presented by the testimony for appellee that the assured was the "cousin of Hobart Alexander." Insurance contracts are void in the absence of an insurable interest-this being the result of public policy as to such matter to prevent such wagering contracts. American Equitable Assur. Co. v. Powderly Coal & Lumber Co. (Ala. Sup.) 142 So. 37; National Fire Insurance Co. of Hartford, Conn., v. Kinney et al., 224 Ala. 586 141 So. 350; Commercial Fire Insurance Co. v. Capital City Insurance Co., 81 Ala. 320, 8 So. 222, 60 Am. Rep 162.
The insured was a yellow negro boy insured under the name of Henry Alexander, and his death occurred on August 4, 1930.
The beneficiary as a witness testified:
The last clause of the policy of insurance which was offered in evidence reads: "Proofs of death under this policy shall be made upon blanks to be furnished by the Company and shall contain answers to each question propounded to the claimant, physicians and other persons, and shall contain the record, evidence and verdict of the coroner's inquest, if any be held."
The agent of the defendant who took the application testified that he took the same from plaintiff; that it was signed at the bottom in the handwriting of Hobart Alexander [appellee]; that he saw "Hobart sign this one here," referring to the application; that witness "never connected the yellow negro [Henry Alexander] with the application at all"; that there was a black negro there with Hobart [the plaintiff] when the "application was filled out"; that he was informed by Hobart "the day the application was taken out that Henry was his cousin."
The other witness for defendant, Ollie Yoe, testified that the assured named in the policy was "the little yellow fellow that died; that he was her sister's son," and "no kin to Henry Alexander."
The recent cases that illustrate our decisions on insurable interest of the beneficiary are: Ex parte Elizabeth Ingram (Ingram v. Johnson) (Ala. Sup.) 147 So. 172; Afro-American Life Ins. Co. v. Adams, 195 Ala. 147 70 So. 119; National Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Bridgeforth, 220 Ala. 314, 124 So. 886; Bridgeforth v. Alabama Life & Accident Ins. Co., 221 Ala. 138, 139, 127 So. 840; North Carolina Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Martin, 223 Ala. 104, 134 So. 850; and those illustrative of the insurable interest of an assignee in a life insurance policy are: Missouri State Life Ins. Co. v. Robertson Banking Co., 223 Ala. 13, 134 So. 25, and authorities; 73 A. L. R. 1043, note of Alabama cases; Haase et al. v. First Nat. Bank of Anniston, 203 Ala. 624, 84 So. 761, wherein assignment was adjudged under the law of the state where made; Fourth Nat. Bank...
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