Piedmont and Arlingtoncompany v. Ewing, Administrator

• Decision Date: 01 October 1875
• Docket Number: LIFE-INSURANCE
• Citation: 92 U.S. 377,23 L.Ed. 610
• Parties: PIEDMONT AND ARLINGTONCOMPANY v. EWING, ADMINISTRATOR
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

92 U.S. 377

23 L.Ed. 610

PIEDMONT AND ARLINGTON LIFE-INSURANCE COMPANY v. EWING, ADMINISTRATOR.

October Term, 1875

ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Missouri.

The case was argued by Mr. E. C. Carrington for the plaintiff in error, and submitted on printed argument by Mr. Britton A. Hill for the defendant in error.

MR. JUSTICE MILLER delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action on a policy of life-insurance issued by plaintiff in error.

The defence is, that though plaintiff below, as administrator of Mr. Howes, whose life it purported to insure, had received the policy, it was, in reality, not delivered by the agent until after the death of the assured, and in ignorance of that event. This is not disputed. But plaintiff below insisted that a contract of insurance had been made between Howes and the insurance company before his death, which bound the company; and whether this was so or not is the principal question in the case.

Another defence, however, was, that the assured had in his application, in answer to the questions propounded to him, stated, among many other things, that his habits of life were correct and temperate, and had ever been so, and that he had never habitually used ardent spirits to the extent of intemperance; and in reply to the question, 'Are you subject to, or have you had, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, dysentery, disease of the heart, stomach, bowels, or any of the vital organs?' answered 'No.' The defendant alleges in his answer to the declaration that these answers were untrue.

On this branch of the case the argument of plaintiff in error is, that the burden of proving the truth of these answers was on plaintiff below; and that, if he failed to introduce satisfactory evidence on that subject, he could not recover. It is true that this court holds that all these answers are warranties, if so declared by the terms of the policy; and if any of them, however immaterial to the risk, is shown to be untrue, the policy is void.

The number of questions in this application which require an answer are from thirty to fifty in every case. They relate to matters occurring in childhood, or which concern the health or habits of the ancestors of the assured, and to other matters rather of opinion than fact, which it would be almost impossible to prove. To establish the truth of the answer would, in many cases, require the party to prove a negative. Take the points raised in the case. How can a man who has lived forty or fifty years prove that he never had dyspepsia or a diarrhoea, or any disease of the heart or bowels? and how can he prove that his habits of life have always been correct, and that he never drank ardent spirits to the extent of intemperance?

While it may be easy enough to prove the affirmative of one of these questions, it is next to impossible to prove the negative.

The number of the questions now asked of the assured in every application for a policy, and the variety of subjects, and length of time which they cover, are such, that it may be safely said that no sane man would ever take a policy if proof to the satisfaction of a jury of the truth of every answer were made known to him to be an indispensable prerequisite to payment of the sum secured, that proof to be made only after he was dead, and could render no assistance in furnishing it. On the other hand, it is no hardship, that, if the insurer knows or believes any of these statements to be false, he shall furnish the evidence on which that knowledge or belief rests. He can thus single out the answer whose truth he proposes to contest and, if he has any reasonable grounds to make such an issue, he can show the facts on which it is founded.

The judge of the Circuit Court was, therefore, right in refusing to instruct the jury, that the burden of proving the truth of these answers rested with the plaintiff below.

The court submitted to the jury the question, whether, notwithstanding the policy was delivered to a friend of the deceased after his death, by the agent of the company, in ignorance of the fact of his death, there had been a contract for insurance before his death, which made this delivery a duty, and therefore valid; and, in doing this, the court placed before the jury hypothetically the principal facts proved on that subject, and said, if they found them as thus stated to be true, they were sufficient to justify a verdict for the plaintiff. This charge is the main error relied on to reverse the judgment.

All the evidence on this subject is in the record, and was parol. It appears that Howes was publisher of a newspaper; and that, the special agent of the company (Huff) desiring to advertise in the paper, an agreement was made that Howes should take a policy on his life for $5,000, and the cost of a year's advertisement should...