Wolfskill v. American Union Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 03 May 1943
• Citation: 172 S.W.2d 471,237 Mo.App. 1142
• Parties: Carrie E. Wolfskill, Respondent, v. American Union Life Insurance Company, Appellant
• Court: Kansas Court of Appeals

172 S.W.2d 471

237 Mo.App. 1142

Carrie E. Wolfskill, Respondent, v. American Union Life Insurance Company, Appellant

Court of Appeals of Missouri, Kansas City

May 3, 1943

Appeal from Linn Circuit Court; Hon. Derk Green, Judge.

Reversed and remanded.

Brown Douglas & Brown, A. L. Guitar and Lon R. Owen for appellant.

(1) The petition alleged an immediate unconditional contract of insurance effective at the date of the application therefor. There was a total failure of proof of such contract, and evidence only of a conditional contract depending upon acceptance of the application. This is in total variance between pleading and proof, requiring a reversal. State ex rel. Kennedy v. Remmers, 340 Mo. 126, 101 S.W.2d 70; Hite v. Met. Street Ry. Co., 130 Mo. 132, 30 S.W 262; Schneider v. Patton, 175 Mo. 684, 75 S.W. 155; Huss v. Heydt Bakery Co., 210 Mo. 44, 108 S.W. 63. (2) There is no evidence that the soliciting agent had any authority to make a contract of insurance, or that he attempted to do so, and the court erred in submitting the case to the jury. Zielinski v. General Am. Life Ins. Co. (Mo. App.), 96 S.W.2d 1059, 1064; Bryne v Prudential Ins. Co. (Mo.), 88 S.W.2d 344, 348; Patterson v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America (Mo. App.), 23 S.W.2d 198, 201. (3) The application and receipt for the first year premium tendered therewith, introduced in evidence by plaintiff, conclusively showed an incomplete contract amounting to nothing more than an offer on the part of the applicant, which could not ripen into a contract of insurance until accepted by the defendant. This evidence completely disproves the allegations of the petition that a contract of insurance was effected on the date of the application. State ex rel. Eq. Life Assur. Society v. Robertson (Mo.), 191 S.W. 989; Zielinski v. General Am. Life Ins. Co. (Mo. App.), 96 S.W.2d 1059, 1062; Fields v. Eq. Life Assur. Society (Mo. App.), 118 S.W.2d 521; Cheek v. Pilot Life Ins. Co., 215 N.C. 36, 1 S.E.2d 115. (4) Under the application and conditional receipt for premium a condition precedent to completion of the contract for insurance was acceptance of the application by the defendant on the identical terms of the application. Plaintiff failed to prove the satisfaction of these conditions precedent, and the case should not have been submitted to the jury. Meyers v. Union Elec. L. & P. Co., 334 Mo. 622, 66 S.W.2d 565, 569; Streib v. Local Lodge No. 27 (Mo. App.), 40 S.W.2d 519, 521; Rhodus v. K. C. Life Ins. Co., 156 Mo.App. 281, 137 S.W. 907. (5) It is conclusively shown that the defendant promptly rejected the application and refunded the premium tendered with it, and there is no pretense either in pleading or proof of the making of a contract by means of waiver of estoppel. Carpenter v. St. Joseph Life Ins. Co., 212 Mo.App. 336, 246 S.W. 623; Mitchell v. Am. Mut. Assn., 226 Mo.App. 696, 46 S.W.2d 231, 236; State ex rel. Continental Ins. Co. v. Becker, 336 Mo. 59, 77 S.W.2d 100, 105; Reed v. Prudential Ins. Co., 229 Mo.App. 90, 73 S.W.2d 1027.

Errol Joyce, C. K. Hart and Walter A. Raymond for respondent.

(1) There was no variance between pleading and proof. Even had there been such variance defendant waived it. Clay v. Owen, 331 Mo. 1061, 93 S.W.2d 914, 916; Kempf v. Equitable Life Assur. Soc. of the United States, 184 S.W. 133, 136, 137; Sec. 969, R. S. Mo. 1939; Porter v. Eq. Life Assur. Soc., 71 S.W.2d 766, 775, 776; 1 Couch, Cyclopedia of Insurance, sec. 91. (2) Defendant's agent had authority to enter into the contract of insurance made by the binding receipt. Kempf v. Eq. Life Assur. Soc. of United States, 184 S.W. 133, 138; Green v. Am. Life & Acc. Ins. Co. (Mo. App.), 93 S.W.2d 1119, 1124. (3) The binding receipt executed and delivered by appellant's agent constituted a binding contract of insurance from the date of its execution and delivery on November 14, 1940. Williams v. Washington Nat. Ins. Co., 91 S.W.2d 131, 136; Allen v. Am. Life & Acc. Ins. Co. (Mo. App.), 83 S.W.2d 192, 193; Burns v. Reis, 196 Mo.App. 694, 191 S.W. 1096, 1098; Western & Southern Life Ins. Co. v. Vale, 12 N.E.2d 353, 354, 355; Hart v. Travelers Ins. Co., 258 N.Y.S. 711, 712, 236 A.D. 309; Colorado Life Co. v. Teague (Tex. Civ. App.), 117 S.W.2d 849; 1 Couch, Cyclopedia of Insurance Law; Stonz v. Eq. L. Assur. Soc. of the United States (Pa.), 187 A. 403. (4) Plaintiff proved insured was reasonably insurable at the time the binding receipt was executed and delivered to him. That proof was sufficient to entitle plaintiff to recover in this case. See cases cited under point (3), supra.

OPINION

Bland, J.

This is an action on a life insurance contract. There was a verdict and judgment in favor of plaintiff, in the sum of $ 2000, and defendant has appealed.

Plaintiff was the beneficiary designated in an application for a $ 2000 policy of life insurance made to the defendant on the 14th day of November, 1940, by William A. Wolfskill, a farmer residing in Linn County. The application provided that, in the event a binding receipt was given, the liability of the company should be as stated in such receipt. The application also contained a declaration that $ 64.06 had been paid to the soliciting agent of the defendant for the first year's premium "and I assent to the terms of the attached binding receipt which has been delivered to me in acknowledgment of said payment at the time of signature." A binding receipt was given Wolfskill by the soliciting agent. The body of the receipt acknowledged the receipt of said sum of money and recited that "if a full first premium . . . has been paid at the time of the making of such application and declaration of such payment is made therein, the insurance, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy contract applied for and in use by the Company of this date, shall take effect on the date hereof, provided the application is completed as agreed therein, and provided the applicant is on this date a risk acceptable to the Company under its rules, on the plan, for the amount and at the rate of premium declared paid, and provided further that the applicant is on this date in good health; otherwise the payment evidenced hereby shall be returned upon demand and surrender of this receipt". (Italics ours.)

The application was sent by the soliciting agent to defendant's home office in St. Joseph. No medical examination was required. Upon receipt of the application defendant applied for an inspection report, which it received after the death of Wolfskill. The report was dated November 19, 1940. Defendant, unsuccessfully, attempted to introduce this report in evidence.

The insured was found dead in his barn on November 16, 1940, his death having been caused by carbolic acid poisoning. Defendant, unsuccessfully, attempted to introduce in evidence the "view inquest" signed by the coroner of Linn County, which recites that insured committed suicide.

Defendant offered to prove that, based upon the inspection report and under the rules and regulations of the company, the applicant was not acceptable to it and that it did not accept him as a risk. The court sustained plaintiff's objection to this offer. The evidence shows that the application was never approved or accepted and that no policy was ever delivered. Upon learning of the death of the insured defendant denied liability and returned to plaintiff the premium paid and received from her the binding receipt.

Plaintiff introduced evidence tending to show that the insured was in good health at the time the application was taken, and defendant introduced evidence to the contrary.

Defendant insists that its instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence should have been given for the reason that the binding receipt amounted to nothing more than an offer which was not accepted; that it was ineffective for any purpose until some unconstitutional affirmative act of acceptance by the company was performed.

Defendant relies largely upon the case of State ex rel. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States v. Robertson, 191 S.W. 989, quashing the opinion of the Springfield Court of Appeals in the case of Kempf et al. v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 184 S.W. 133. In that case the binding receipt provided: l. c. 990, ". . . contract shall take effect as of the date of this receipt, provided the applicant is on this date in the opinion of the society's authorized officers in New York, an insurable risk under its rules and the application is otherwise acceptable on the plan and for the amount applied for."

In that case the company undertook to accept the application conditionally by "rating up" the applicant's age five years, charging a higher premium than specified in the application tendered with it, and actually issued a policy on those changed terms and conditions, and sent it to its local office for delivery. In the meantime the applicant died. The Supreme Court held there was no insurance.

It will be noted that the first condition contained in the binding receipt involved in that case required that the applicant be an insurable risk, in the opinion of the society's authorized officers, under its rules. The Supreme Court...