Yount v. Prudential Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 04 October 1915
• Docket Number: No. 11657.,11657.
• Parties: YOUNT v. PRUDENTIAL LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

179 S.W. 749

YOUNT v. PRUDENTIAL LIFE INS. CO.

No. 11657.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

October 4, 1915.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; Daniel E. Bird, Judge.

"Not to be officially published."

Action by Estella E. Yount against the Prudential Life Insurance Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Sherman & Landon, of Kansas City, Mo., and McAnany & Alden, of Kansas City, Kan., for appellant. Haff, Meservey, German & Michaels, of Kansas City, Mo., for respondent.

TRIMBLE, J.

As the widow of Leon L. Yount, deceased, plaintiff seeks to recover upon an alleged contract of insurance between her late husband and the defendant, of which contract, if it exists, she is the beneficiary. Defendant insists that, according to the express terms of the negotiations between it and deceased, there was to be no contract of insurance until the policy had been issued and delivered to the husband while in good health, and that, as there was no delivery of the policy to him, no contract of insurance was in existence at the time of his death.

So far as we can ascertain from the record, there does not seem to be any dispute as to the facts in the case, though there is considerable difference of opinion as to the legal conclusions to be drawn from those facts. Leon L. Yount was a piano salesman for the Starr Piano Company of Kansas City. On the evening of January 22, 1914, he signed and delivered to H. C. Garnett, one of defendant's agents who had solicited his insurance, a written application to defendant for a ten-year term policy of life insurance for $5,000, the quarterly premium on which was to be $14.65, and the beneficiary therein to be the applicant's wife. Among the stipulations in the application, and appearing just above the applicant's signature, was an agreement that the application should become a part of the contract of insurance, and that the policy applied for should be accepted subject to the privileges and provisions therein contained, "and said policy shall not take effect until the same shall be issued and delivered by the said company, and the first premium thereon paid in full, while my health, habits, and occupation are the same as described in this application."

It seems that Garnett agreed to purchase a piano on the installment plan, and the arrangement between the two men was that Yount caused his employer, the Starr Piano Company, to give Garnett a receipt for $10, being first payment of the piano, while Garnett gave to Yount a receipt for $10 "on account of first quarterly premium." No cash actually passed in the transaction, but each party accounted to his principal for the money represented by the receipt he had given; and when Garnett turned the application in to Sullens, defendant's local superintendent he also turned in $10 in cash as the amount collected on same. This was in accordance with the rules of the company and the terms of his contract of employment. The receipt given by Garnett to Yount was as follows:

                                           "Jan. 22, 1914
                

"Received from Mr. Yount [applicant] the sum of ten dollars, being a payment on account of the first quarterly premium on a policy applied for in the Prudential Insurance Company of America. It is understood that this payment is in no way binding upon the said company, except that said company agrees to return the amount mentioned hereon in case the company declines to grant a policy on the life of said applicant.

                    "[Signed]         H. C. Garnett, Agent."
                

Mr. Yount was examined by the defendant's local medical examiner on January 26, 1914, and this report, constituting a part of the application, and the whole showing applicant to be in good health, was sent to the home office of the company in Newark, N. J., on the same day. On January 30, 1914, the home office approved the application and made out the kind of policy applied for, and mailed it to the local office of the defendant, from whence the application had been received. Pinned on the face of the policy when it was sent out was a red slip bearing these words:

"Important.

"This policy must not be delivered unless the applicant is in a satisfactory condition of health. Superintendents, agency organizers, assistants, agents, managers, and special agents will be held responsible for a strict observance of the rules regarding the delivery of policies as stated in the ordinary rate book.

                      "The Prudential Insurance Company
                                                of America."
                

The policy, with this red slip attached, reached the local office and went into the hands of the agent, Garnett. The precise date it reached him is not shown, but it could not be very far from February 5th or 6th. He says he had obtained it "one or two days" before he read in the papers an account of Mr. Yount's death, whereupon he returned the policy to the company. He never notified Mr. Yount, or any of his family, prior to his death, that the application had been accepted or that the policy had been received; and Mr. Yount died without knowing that his application had been acted upon, or that it had been accepted by the home office, or that the policy had...