72 Md. 363 | Md. | 1890
delivered the opinion of the Court.
John W. Jones insured his life in the Keystone Mutual Benefit Association for the benefit of his wife, Celia Ann Jones. After his death she recovered a judgment on the policy for the amount insured. In the application for insurance the age of Jones was stated to be forty-three years. According to the terms of the.policy, it was null and void if any statement in the application
The evidence tended to show that the insured was a colored man, who could neither read nor write, and that the application for insurance was received by one Foxeraft, an agent of the insurance company, 'who wrote down the answers to the questions contain&d in the application. Celia Jones, the plaintiff below, testified that at the time Foxcraft was filling up the application, he asked Jones if he knew his age, and Jones replied that he did not know it, and could not come anywhere near it, and that thereupon Foxcraft said that he would take him to be about forty-three years old, and so entered his age in the application, and that after the application was filled up, it was read to Jones by Foxcraft, and that Jones knew that his age was stated to be forty-three years, and that Foxcraft said that it was all right and that he would have no trouble at all. Mary Dashields, the daughter of Jones and the plaintiff, corroborates this testimony, and further states that Foxcraft said “I will put you in, anyhow, for forty-three years old, and make you younger than you are.” The testimony of these two witnesses was contradicted by the evidence given in behalf of the insurance company; but if it is true (and the jury were alone competent to judge of its truth) it shows that the answer in reference to the age of the insured was virtually made by Foxcraft, and not by Jones. It would be a fraud to induce an ignorant man to assent to an answer in the manner stated, and then use it to his disadvantage. If the answer were obtained in this way, it would derive no particular efficacy from the circum
The Court of Common Pleas instructed the jury in accordance with the views which we have expressed, and the judgment must be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.