191 Pa. 618 | Pa. | 1899
Opinion by
This appeal from the judgment entered in an action on a life insurance policy issued by the defendant association, and dated November 14, 1893, presents the single question: Whether there was sufficient evidence of “good health” of the insured, at the time the policy was delivered, to go to the jury ?
On October 30,1893, plaintiff’s husband made application to defendant association for insurance on his life in the sum of 15,000, payable upon his death to his wife, the plaintiff in this suit. Among other representations, the application contains the following: “ That I am in good health and free from any and all diseases, sickness, ailments or complaints, trivial or otherwise.” It is conceded that plaintiff’s husband was in good health at the time his application was presented to and acted on by the defendant association. The policy was issued and sent to the local agent, Lewis L. Evans, for delivery upon pay
As stated in the learned trial judge’s charge, the questions in dispute were: “ The real contention here, on the part of the plaintiff is, that while Mr. Barnes was sick and in bed from Saturday, November 25, until the night of Thursday, the 30th of November, when he died, still the sickness, up to and including the time when the policy was issued and the money paid by Mrs. Barnes, was simply trivial or temporary, as they believed, and that the serious illness which took Mr. Barnes’s life set in the next day, or Wednesday evening, when he had a severe chill. The contention of, the defendant is that Mr. Barnes was taken down on Saturday with a severe cold which steadily grew worse, and that at the time the premium was paid to Mr. Evans, Mrs. Barnes either knew, or ought to have known, her husband was a very sick man, and it was a fraud upon the company to have him insured.”
In a fair and impartial charge these and subordinate questions were submitted to the jury by the learned trial judge, who among other things said: “ A temporary or slight cold in a man of usually good health .... would not constitute unsound health.” In view of the instructions, under which the case was submitted to the juiy, on all the evidence, their verdict in plaintiff’s favor necessarily implies that they found as a fact that when the premium was paid and the policy delivered, on November 28, 1893, Mr. Barnes was, according to the true intent and meaning of the policy, in “ good health.” That finding of fact definitively settled the controlling question in the case. The jury were correctly instructed as to the meaning of the words, “good health.” As stated by a learned text writer, the term “ good
It is unnecessary to refer in detail to the evidence. It was clearly sufficient to warrant ,the submission of the case to the jury on the question of the good health of the insured at the time the premium was paid and policy delivered to plaintiff, and other subordinate questions of fact in dispute. This is especially so, in view of the fact that the evidence was more or less conflicting on all material questions of fact. The case was clearly for the jury: Smith v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 183 Pa. 504; Keatley v. Travelers’ Ins. Co., 187 Pa. 197.
There is nothing in either of the specifications of error that requires discussion. Neither of them is sustained.
Judgment affirmed.