Standard Life Ins. Co. v. Baldwin
| Decision Date | 14 January 1946 |
| Docket Number | 35948. |
| Citation | 199 Miss. 302,24 So.2d 360 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | STANDARD LIFE INS. CO. v. BALDWIN. |
Brandon, Brandon & Hornsby, of Natchez, for appellant.
Jos. E. Brown, of Natchez, for appellee.
Suit at law was brought against the Insurance Company upon a policy of life insurance in the sum of $400 written upon the life of appellee's wife. From a peremptory instruction in favor of the plaintiff, the company appeals.
The pertinent provisions of the policy are as follows: Liability of the insurer is limited to a return of the premiums paid provided, '(1) if before the date hereof the insured * * * has been attended by a physician for any serious disease or complaint or before said date has had any pulmonary disease * * *', unless there has been a formal waiver. Also 'in event of the death of the Insured within the first twelve (12) months from the date of the Policy, due directly or indirectly to * * * pulmonary disease * * * the liability of the Company shall be limited to one fourth (1/4) of the Amount of Insurance stipulated in the Schedule on the face of the Policy'.
Defense was grounded upon the fact of tuberculosis upon the date the policy was issued and upon the fact that insured died of that disease within twelve months from such date. It is not disputed that the policy was dated April 26, 1943, and that insured died March 19, 1944.
The testimony shows that insured was attended and treated many times between October 1942 and the date of her death. The attending physician was allowed to testify to such fact but not the nature of her illness nor the cause of her death. However, his Proof of Death, required by the policy, showed she died of tuberculosis. The plaintiff denied that he knew the cause of her death but admitted that 'I guess she died of tuberculosis'. His Proof of Death, likewise required by the contract, stated that she died from such disease. While he denied that he had so stated and that he could not write, the company's agent, Hardy, testified that plaintiff so told him and that the answers to the questions in the Proof of Death furnished by plaintiff were filled in according to the latter's answers, and was signed by plaintiff's mark duly witnessed.
In view of the long continued treatment and the improbability if not impossibility, that insured contracted the disease after Christmas 1943 and died therefrom March 19, 1944, as testified by plaintiff, supplemented by the testimony of Hardy and the averments in the Proof of Death, we are of the opinion that the learned trial judge was not warranted in directing a verdict for plaintiff. Under the present aspect of the case it was at least a jury issue whether she died...
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...law. Donaldson v. Life and Casualty Ins. Co. of Tenn., 239 Miss. 635, 124 So.2d 701, 704 (1960); Standard Life Insurance Company v. Baldwin, 199 Miss. 302, 24 So.2d 360 (1946). At the time that he executed the application in question and at the time of his death, Charles Edward Flynn was Ch......
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