Williams v. Union Central Life Ins Co

• Decision Date: 15 January 1934
• Docket Number: No. 208,208
• Citation: 92 A.L.R. 693,291 U.S. 170,54 S.Ct. 348,78 L.Ed. 711
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. UNION CENTRAL LIFE INS. CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

291 U.S. 170

54 S.Ct. 348

78 L.Ed. 711

WILLIAMS

v UNION CENTRAL LIFE INS. CO.

No. 208.

Argued Dec. 14, 1933.

Decided Jan. 15, 1934.

Messrs. Harris O. Williams and Charles O. Harris, both of San Angelo, Tex., for petitioner.

Mr. Eugene P. Locke, of Dallas, Tex., for respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.

This action was brought by petitioner as beneficiary of a policy of insurance for $10,000 issued July 26, 1927, upon the life of her husband, who died on October 15, 1931. Application for the policy was made, and the policy was delivered in the state of Texas. A level premium of $449.10 was payable annually on June 10th, and was paid to and including June 10, 1930. The premium payable on June 10, 1931, was not paid either at that time or within the thirty-one days of grace allowed by the policy. The 'loan value' or 'cash value' of the policy, as shown by the table which the policy set forth, was then $910. Loans against the policy, with interest, amounted to $898.88. The policy was a participating one, and a dividend of $74.80 was declared in favor of the insured on June 10, 1931. If that dividend had been applied in reduction of the amount advanced against the policy or to the purchase of extended insurance, the result would have been to extend the insurance beyond the date of the death of the insured. Petitioner contends that the dividend should have been so applied. Respondent insists that such application would have been contrary to the terms of the policy and that, on the expiration of the period of grace without payment of the premium due, the policy lapsed and the dividend was payable in cash and not otherwise.

Respondent's request for the direction of a verdict was denied, and the verdict and judgment went for petitioner. The judgment was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. 65 F.(2d) 240, 245. This Court granted certiorari.

The policy gave the following options as to the disposition of dividends:

'11. Dividend Options. Dividends may be withdrawn in cash; or applied to the payment of premiums; or left to accumulate with interest at three per cent., increased from surplus interest earnings as apportioned by the Directors, until the maturity of the policy, subject to withdrawal at any time; or applied to the purchase of paid-up participating additions to the policy, convertible into cash at any time for the amount of the original dividends or the reserve of the additions, if larger, but payment may be deferred by the Company ninety days from the date of application therefor.'

There is no ambiguity in the terms of these options. They are clear and definite in the terminology of insurance and each is to be applied with its distinctive significance. No one of these options provides for the use of a dividend to procure extended insurance; that is, to procure an extension of the term of the insurance from the date to which premiums have been paid, without any further payment. Dividends may be withdrawn in cash or applied to the payment of premiums or left to accumulate with interest subject to withdrawal at any time. The further option to have dividends 'applied to the purchase of paid-up participating additions to the policy' is quite distinct from an option to procure extended insurance. A 'paid-up addition' to the policy, by the application of a dividend, is the amount added to the face of the policy and purchased by the use of the dividend as a single premium. For such paid-up additions there must be a legal reserve.

The insured did not exercise any one of the options given by article 11. It appears that he had several other policies issued by the same company, and, in addition to the amount advanced by the company, he had borrowed certain amounts from the company's agents in Dallas, Tex. These agents, on September 18, 1931, obtained an order on the company, signed by the insured, which directed payment to them of the dividend on the policy in suit together with dividends on other policies. On this order, the dividend here in question was paid to the agents. Petitioner contested the order as having been signed at a time when the insured did not have sufficient mental capacity to understand the transaction. This issue of fact was decided by the jury in favor of petitioner, and the Circuit Court of Appeals did not pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence in that relation. Nor do we deal with that question. The only other indication of the intention of the insured is sought to be drawn from a statement in a letter addressed to the company by its agents on September 14, 1931, referring to a conversation with the insured about September 1st. The agents said that the insured had rejected their proposal for the use of dividends on his policies in partial payment of his note held by the agents, saying that 'he was going to have every nickel applied towards paying these policies as far as it would carry them.' We agree with the view of the Circuit Court of Appeals that this statement was too indefinite to serve as a direction to the company to apply the dividend in question in any particular way, and, unless the insurance had been extended under the provisions of the policy, it had already lapsed and could be reinstated only in accordance with the requirements of the policy; that is, upon payment of premium arrears with interest and satisfactory evidence of insurability. We are unable to find any basis for the conclusion that the insured either had, or attempted to exercise, any option to use the dividend to obtain extended insurance, and our decision must turn upon the construction of the provisions of the policy applicable to such a case.

Article 12 provides for the 'automatic disposition' of dividends as follows:

'12. Automatic Disposition. On payment of the premium, or on the policy anniversary if no further premium is payable, if no other option has been elected, the dividend then due shall be applied to the purchase of paid-up additions. In the event of the death of the insured during the days of grace, the current premium being unpaid, if no other option has been elected, or if the policy shall lapse, the dividend then due shall be paid in cash. At the death of the insured during the continuance of the policy, the pro rata part of the dividend for the current policy year shall be paid in cash.'

The first sentence of article 12 is inapplicable, as it provides for the disposition of the dividend 'on payment of the premium, or on the policy anniversary if no further premium is payable, if no other option has been elected.' The present case is not one where the premium was paid or where on the 'policy anniversary' no further premium was payable. The first part of the second sentence is also inapplicable, as the insured did not did during the days of grace. It is also clear that the third and last sentence does not apply. But the case does fall directly within the alternative of the second sentence, 'or if the policy shall lapse, the dividend then due shall be paid in cash.' That is precisely this case. And this provision of the policy is in plain opposition to the contention that the dividend should be applied to an extension of the insurance. The provision presupposes a dividend due and the lapse of the policy for nonpayment of premium, and the dividend is then to be paid in cash.

Petitioner seeks to escape this definite stipulation by invoking the provisions of the policy as to the use of the 'policy value' or 'surrender value' in obtaining extended insurance. After stating that the reserve of the policy 'is computed on the American Experience Table of Mortality with interest 3 1/2%,' the policy provides:

'15. Surrender Value. After two full years' premiums have been paid, the surrender value for each thousand dollars of insurance is equal to the reserve at the end of the policy year, omitting cents, except that in the second, third and fourth policy years, it is equal to the reserve at the end of the policy year, taken to the nearest dollar, less surrender charges of $21, $13 and $6 respectively.

'16. Policy Values. The surrender value may be used at the option of the owner of the policy in any one of the following ways, all of equal value, as set forth in the following tables, provided there be no indebtedness or advances on the policy. If, on failure to pay a premium, no option is exercised, such value shall be applied as provided in Option 1.

'17. Option 1.—Extended Insurance. Applied to the extension of this policy as participating term insurance from the date to which premiums have been paid, without any further payment (Table 1.) The value of any paid-up additions will be used to increase the term of extension. Accumulations of dividends at interest may be applied to increase the term of extension. Dividends on extended insurance shall be paid in cash and only for completed policy years.

'22. Deduction of Indebtedness. If there by any indebtedness or advances on this policy, the cash value shall be reduced thereby; the paid-up value shall be reduced proportionately; and the extended insurance shall be for the face value of the policy less the indebtedness and advances and for such term as said reduced cash value will provide.'

Petitioner argues that an earlier provision of the policy (article 8) that 'after two full years' premiums have been paid, on failure to pay any subsequent premium, this policy shall lapse and its value, if any, shall be applied as set forth in article 16,' conflicts with the provision of article 12 that the dividend in case of lapse shall be paid in cash. There is no conflict, however, as article 16 refers to the use of the 'surrender value,' as defined in article 15. Instead of there being inconsistency, article 8 expressly provides for lapse on nonpayment of premium, the event on which, by article 12, the dividend is to be paid in cash. The dividend is not a part of the 'surrender value.' That value is equal to...