State Nat. Life Ins. Co. v. Stamper, 5-1547
| Decision Date | 28 April 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 5-1547,5-1547 |
| Citation | 228 Ark. 1128,312 S.W.2d 441 |
| Parties | STATE NATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Clara E. STAMPER, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Coleman, Gantt & Ramsay, by E. Harley Cox, Jr., Pine Bluff, for appellant.
Reinberger & Eilbott, Pine Bluff, for appellee.
In June, 1954, the appellant, State National Life Insurance Company, sold to Clara E. Stamper a policy covering hospital and other expenses growing out of sickness or an accident. It is stipulated that if appellee is entitled to recover under the terms of the policy it is in the sum of $222. The cause was tried before the court sitting as a jury, and from a judgment in favor of the policyholder the insurance company has appealed.
The applicable provision of the policy is as follows: 'State National Life Insurance Company * * * hereby insures the person named as Insured * * * and * * * promises to pay the Insured toward the expense actually incurred by the Insured * * * necessitated by * * * (b) sickness suffered while this policy is in force, the cause of which sickness originates after thirty days from the effective date of this policy * * *.' The appellant contends that the cause of the insured's disability originated prior to thirty days following the effective date of the policy.
In July, 1955, a little over a year after Mrs. Stamper purchased the policy of insurance, she began to suffer pain in her neck and shoulders. At first she thought it was caused by her teeth, and had her teeth pulled, but this did not give relief. During most of her life she had a small bony growth or knot on the back of her head. Prior to July, 1955, she had suffered no ill effects whatever from this growth, but in August, 1955, it was determined that the bony growth had increased in size to the point where it was causing the pain suffered by Mrs. Stamper. According to the undisputed evidence the bony growth had not caused any trouble whatever until more than a year after the issuance of the policy of insurance, and it is apparent from the evidence that if this growth actually did cause Mrs. Stamper's trouble it did so because of increase in size subsequent to the time the policy was issued.
In Home Life Ins. Co. v. Allison, 179 Ark. 65, 68, 14 S.W.2d 229, 230, in holding that the insured was entitled to recover for disability due to sleeping sickness, although the cause of such sleeping sickness was an attack of flu occurring prior to the effective...
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