Northwestern Mut Life Ins Co v. Johnson National Liff Ins Co of Montpelier, Vt v. Miller
| Decision Date | 15 November 1920 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 70 and 71,s. 70 and 71 |
| Citation | 41 S.Ct. 47,254 U.S. 96,65 L.Ed. 155 |
| Parties | NORTHWESTERN MUT. LIFE INS. CO. v. JOHNSON. NATIONAL LIFF INS. CO. OF MONTPELIER, VT., v. MILLER |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
[In No. 70:
Mr. George Lines, of Milwaukee, Wis., for Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. co.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 96-99 intentionally omitted] Mr. S. F. Prouty, of Des Moines, Iowa, for Johnson.
In No. 71:
Mr. George B. Young, of Montpelier, Vt., for National Life Ins. Co.
Mr. S. F. Prouty, of Des Moines, Iowa, for Miller.
These are suits upon policies issued to George P. Johnson upon his life, payable in the first case to his wife, in the second to his executors or administrators. The wife and the administrator respectively recovered in the District Court and the cases having gone to the Circuit Court of Appeals the latter has certified certain questions to this court. The policy payable to the wife contained a provision that——
'if within two years from the date hereof, the said insured shall * * * die in consequence of a duel, or shall, while sane or insane, die by his own hand, then, and in every such case, this policy shall be void.'
Johnson, the insured, died by his own hand more than two years after the date of the policy. The first question put in the wife's suit is whether the above provision, there being no other in the policy as to suicide, makes the insurance company liable in the event that happened. The second is in substance whether the contract if construed to make the company liable is against public policy and void.
The policy payable to the administrator had no provision as to suicide but did agree that——
'This contract shall be incontestable after one year from the date of its issue, provided the required premiums are duly paid.'
Johnson's suicide was more than a year after the date of the policy. The first question propounded is whether the above provision prevents the insurer from denying liability in this case, it not appearing that Johnson was insane when he killed himself. The second is whether such a contract which makes no exception for death resulting from suicide is against public policy, and therefore void. There is a third as to a possible distinction between insurance payable to the wife and that payable to the estate of the insured which will not need to be discussed.
The public policy with regard to such contracts is a matter for the states to decide. Whitfield v. AEtna Life Insurance Co., 205 U. S. 489, 495, 27 Sup. Ct. 578, 51 L. Ed. 895. This case qualifies the statement in Ritter v. Mutual Life Ins. Co., 169 U. S. 139, 154, 18 Sup. Ct. 300, 42 L. Ed. 693, to the effect that insurance on a man's own life payable to his estate and expressly covering suicide committed by him when sane would be against public policy. The point decided was only that when the contract was silent there was an implied exception of such a death. There was evidence that the insurance was taken out with intent to commit suicide, and it plainly appeared that the act was done by the insured for the purpose of enabling his estate to pay his debts. The application, although excluded below, warranted against suicide within two years, within which time the death took place. So that all the circumstances gave moral support to the construction of the policy adopted by the court in accordance with the view that has prevailed in some jurisdictions as to the general rule. In Burt v. Central Life Ins. Co., 187 U. S. 362, 23 Sup. Ct. 139, 47 L. Ed. 216, it was held that there was a similar tacit exclusion from the risk assumed of the death of the insured by execution for murder, and the same decision was reached in Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. McCue, 223 U. S. 234, 32 Sup. Ct....
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