Woodell v. Aetna Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 November 1938
• Docket Number: 233.
• Citation: 199 S.E. 719,214 N.C. 496
• Parties: WOODELL v. ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

199 S.E. 719

214 N.C. 496

WOODELL v. ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO.

No. 233.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

November 30, 1938

Appeal from Superior Court, Harnett County; W. C. Harris, Judge.

Action by Daniel J. Woodell against the Aetna Life Insurance Company to recover for permanent disability under a life policy issued by defendant. From a judgment overruling defendant's demurrer, defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

A stipulation in an insurance policy requiring notice to be given to insurer should be read with an exception reasonably saving the rights of the insured from forfeiture when, due to no fault of his own, he is totally incapacitated from giving notice.

The plaintiff held a policy of insurance with defendant company in which it was provided:

"Six months after proof is received at the Home Office of the Company, before the sum insured or any installment thereof becomes payable, that the insured has become wholly continuously and permanently disabled and will for life be unable to perform any work or conduct any business for compensation or profit, or has met with the irrevocable loss of the entire sight of both eyes, or the total and permanent loss by removal or disease of the use of both hands or of both feet, or of such loss of one hand and one foot, all from causes originating after the delivery of this policy, the Company will, if all premiums previously due have been paid, waive the payment of all premiums falling due thereafter during such disability, and if such disability was sustained as above described and before the insured attained the age of sixty years, the Company will pay to the life beneficiary the sum of ten dollars for each thousand dollars of the sum herein described as the sum insured and will pay the same sum on the same day of ever month thereafter during the lifetime and during such disability of the insured.

Said waiver of premiums and said monthly payments will not affect any other obligations of the Company as herein provided and the sum insured will be due and payable at death or maturity for the same amount and in the same way as if the premiums had been paid in cash.

The foregoing benefits for disability are conditioned upon the Medical Examiner of the Company being permitted to examine the insured before the acceptance of proof.

The consideration for the disability provision above described is an additional premium of 89/100ths Dollars, which consideration is included in the premium named in this policy, but will be reduced to ------ and 100ths Dollars after the insured attains the age of sixty years.

(Note Upon surrender of this policy at the end of the endowment term after disability payments commence, the Company will issue a supplementary contract providing for the continuance of the required disability payments during the lifetime and during the disability of the insured.)"

The complaint alleges: "7. That the disabled condition of the plaintiff, as he is informed and believes, and therefore alleges, was due to and caused by paralysis agitans, cordio-reno vascular disease and advanced arterio-sclerosis, and as a result of said disease the plaintiff's arteries in the brain became hard and ruptured, thereby causing a general wasting away of the muscles, and pain in head, extreme weakness, loss of speech, loss of use of hands and feet, and continuous tremor of all muscles, all of which occurred in the summer of 1933, about the last of the month of June of said year, and that because of the said diseased and disabled physical condition and suffering, the mental condition of plaintiff was impaired until December 15, 1936, so that plaintiff was physically and mentally incapable of furnishing or causing to be furnished proof of his disability to defendant."

It is further alleged in the complaint: "That on December 15 1936, and again on February 3, 1937, when furnishing further proofs of his disability as requested by defendant, the plaintiff caused to be furnished to the defendant full, complete and sufficient information to the effect that the physical and mental disability of the plaintiff had rendered it impossible for him to furnish or cause to be furnished proof of his said disability during the latter part of June, 1933, or at any other time prior to December 15, 1936, and that notwithstanding that the defendant was in possession of such information and medical facts and had its own investigator to observe the plaintiff, it elected to disregard the disability of plaintiff prior to December 15, 1936, and plaintiff's consequent helplessness and inability to furnish...