Provident Sav. Life Assur. Soc. v. Cannon

• Citation: 201 Ill. 260,66 N.E. 388
• Parties: PROVIDENT SAV. LIFE ASSUR. SOC. v. CANNON.
• Decision Date: 18 February 1903
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

201 Ill. 260

66 N.E. 388

PROVIDENT SAV. LIFE ASSUR. SOC.

v.CANNON.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 18, 1903.

Appeal from appellate court, Fourth district.

Action by Isaac Cannon, administrator of the estate of William Cannon, deceased, against the Provident Savings Life Assurance Society. From a judgment of the appellate court (103 Ill. App. 534) affirming a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Otis H. Waldo and Callahan & Jones, for appellant.

Gee & Barnes, J. E. McGaughey, and Bradbury & MacHatton, for appellee.

This was an action in assumpsit, brought by the appellee, Isaac Cannon, as administrator of the estate of William Cannon, deceased, on a policy of insurance for $5,000 issued by appellant, the Provident Savings Life Assurance Society of New York, on the life on the deceased. The application for the policy was made August 23, 1899, and the policy is dated September 9, 1899. William Cannon died December 16, 1899, and the appellant refused to pay the amount of the policy, alleging that a number of the statements of the assured in his application, declared to be warranties by the policy, were fraudulent or untrue. A jury trial was had, resulting in a verdict and judgment for appellee. On appeal this judgment was affirmed, and the defendant below has further appealed to this court.

CARTER, J. (after stating the facts).

The appellant contends for the proposition, and has supported its contention with elaborate arguments and citation of authorities, that the statements made by the intestate of appellee in his application to secure the insurance policy sued on are warranties, and therefore, if any of them are untrue, evasive, or so made as to conceal any fact fairly called for by the questions, whether intentional or not, and whether material or not, there can be no recovery. Appellant maintains that the language of the application and the policy is such that the insurance contract arising therefrom is not subject to the rule that, when the contract contains language which cannot be given effect without assuming that the statements of the assured are representations, they will be so considered, notwithstanding the policy states that they are to be deemed warranties. Continental Life Ins. Co. v. Rogers, 119 Ill. 474, 10 N. E. 242. On the facts of this case it is not material what is the construction to be given to the insurance contract here sued on. The jury, at the request of appellee, returned answers to a number of special interrogatories, from which it appears that they found that John G. Buchanan, who took the application for insurance of William Cannon, was the agent of appellant; that at the time he took the application he was acquainted with the fact of the sickness of William Cannon in November, 1896; that he then knew that Cannon had been refused insurance by the Des Moines Life Association; that Cannon had made no false answers or suppressed any material facts either to the agent or the medical examiner; that the medical examiner knew of the...