Pearson v. Equitable Life Assur. Soc. of U.S.

• Decision Date: 05 January 1938
• Docket Number: 752.
• Citation: 194 S.E. 661,212 N.C. 731
• Parties: PEARSON v. EQUITABLE LIFE ASSUR. SOC. OF THE UNITED STATES.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

194 S.E. 661

212 N.C. 731

PEARSON v. EQUITABLE LIFE ASSUR. SOC. OF THE UNITED STATES.

No. 752.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

January 5, 1938

Appeal from Superior Court, Forsyth County; Frank S. Hill, Special Judge.

Civil action by Mary Pearson, as beneficiary, against the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, to recover $500 the face value of a certificate of insurance issued to Edward C. Pearson under a group life insurance policy issued by the defendant to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. There was a judgment of nonsuit entered at the conclusion of all the evidence, to which plaintiffs excepted and appealed.

Affirmed.

This is a civil action instituted by the plaintiff to recover the sum of $500, the face value of a certificate of insurance issued to Edward C. Pearson under a group life insurance policy issued by the defendant to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The plaintiff is the beneficiary named in the certificate. There was a judgment of nonsuit entered at the conclusion of all the evidence, to which the plaintiff excepted and appealed.

Employees working on a day-to-day basis without any contract for any specified period of employment occupy a status rather than a contractual relationship.

John D Slawter and Richmond Rucker both of Winston-Salem, for appellant.

Manly Hendren & Womble, of Winston Salem, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

There is no substantial controversy about the facts in this case. The defendant issued to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company its group life insurance policy with total and permanent disability provisions, insuring the lives of the employees of said tobacco company. The deceased, Edward C. Pearson, son of the plaintiff, worked continuously for the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company from December 3, 1929, through July 17, 1936 save and except when he was temporarily absent from his employment for a few days at various times during said period. A certificate of insurance dated December 3, 1929, was issued to him in the sum of $500, payable to the plaintiff as beneficiary, upon the death of the said Edward C. Pearson. This certificate was issued subject to the terms and conditions of the master policy.

Edward C. Pearson, the employee, was on July 20, 1936, convicted in municipal court of the city of Winston-Salem on the charge of operating a motor vehicle upon the public highways of the state while under the influence of intoxicating liquors. He was on said date committed to jail, to be assigned to work the public roads of said county for a term of 6 months. On July 23, 1936, while serving said sentence he died suddenly as the result of sunstroke.

The contract of insurance was entered into by and between the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and the defendant and the said tobacco company paid the premium therefor annually. In turn the said tobacco company had an arrangement with its insured employees, by the terms of which each employee paid monthly a proportionate part of the premium of said master policy in part reimbursement for the amount expended by said company for said insurance. The deceased paid his installment for the month of July, 1936.

It is agreed that on the morning of July 20, 1936, said employee did not report for work and his wife informed his foreman that said employee had been arrested and was to be tried on that morning. Later, on the same date, the wife of the deceased advised his foreman that said employee had been convicted and committed to the roads to serve a term of 6 months. The evidence disclosed that thereupon the name of the deceased was erased from the roll of employees of the said tobacco company and that in due course it was reported to the insurance company that he had been dropped from said roll and was no longer an employee of said company. The tobacco company gave the deceased no notice that it had dropped him from the pay roll.

Under the terms of the group policy the insurance of any employee automatically ceased upon termination of his employment with the employer in the classes of employees insured under the policy without regard to the cause of such termination, "except that the employer may elect that all employees, who while insured hereunder, are temporarily laid off or given leave of absence, or are disabled, or retired on pension, shall be considered to be in the employment of the employer during such period, subject to the conditions contained in the Total and Permanent Disability provision hereof."

The plaintiff contends that it was the...