261 Mass. 245 | Mass. | 1927
The plaintiff, the beneficiary named in a policy of accident insurance issued by the defendant to her son John M. Mulcahy on March 11, 1921, brings suit to recover the full amount of the indemnity ($7,500). set out in the policy at the date of its issue. The defendant contends that if anything is due the plaintiff, the amount is $2,270.50.
At the date on which the policy took effect, John M. Mulcahy’s occupation was that of manager-proprietor of a custom shirt company, performing office, travelling and executive duties. According to the statement of premiums and classification of risks then on file with the commissioner of insurance, it was classified as “select.”; and the premium
The policy was "issued for a term of Three months to commence on the 11th day of March 1921 . . . but it may be renewed with the consent of the Company, from term to term of Three months, each, by the payment of the premium in advance.” . John M. Mulcahy paid premiums of $7.75 at periods of three months up to September 3, 1925, the time of his death, to continue the policy in force. His last payment was made June 11, 1925.
The principal question for our determination is, whether payment in that amount by one occupied as he was at the time of his death entitles his beneficiary to indemnity in $7,500, or only to such proportion of that sum as the premium paid would have purchased at the rate then fixed for such occupation. The answer must be found from the proper construction of the language of the policy.
It stated that it contained "the entire contract of insurance except as it may be modified by the Company’s classification of risks and premium rates in the event that the Insured is injured after having changed his occupation to one classified by the Company as more hazardous than that stated in the Policy, or while he is doing any act or thing pertaining to any occupation so classified . . . in which event the Company will pay only such portion of the indemnities provided in the Policy as the premium paid would have purchased at the rate but within the limits so fixed by the Company for such more hazardous occupation. If the law of the state in which the insured resides at.the time this Policy is issued requires
The law of Massachusetts — G. L. c. 175, § 108 (a) — requires that before policies shall issue, the insurer shall file “its table of rates or manual of risks” with the commissioner of insurance. The insured resided in this State. He changed his occupation to one which was not set out in the manual of risks on file when the policy issued and for which no premium was then established, but which subsequently and before the occurrence of the loss was set out in a table of rates or manual of risks duly filed according to law and there classed as more hazardous than the one stated in the policy and for which a higher premium was fixed. The plaintiff contends that the language of the policy just quoted makes the statement on file when the policy was issued the one “last filed by the Company in accordance with such law,” and the one and only classification of risks and premium rates which can modify the contract “in the event that the Insured is injured after having changed his occupation to one classified by the Company as more hazardous than that stated in the Policy.” Such a construction is too narrow. The policy must be read in the fight of our statutes. G. L. c. 175, § 108, requires that the policy must contain, (f) 1, “A provision that such policy and such papers as may be attached to or endorsed thereon shall constitute the whole contract of insurance, except as the same may be affected by any table of rates or classification of risks filed by the company with the commissioner”; and (f) 6, “A provision that if the insured is injured . . . after having changed his occupation to one classified by the company as more hazardous than that stated in the policy, or while he is doing any act or thing pertaining
The plaintiff urges that the insurer has designated the rates and classification which are to control as “only such as have been filed by the Company in accordance with such law,” and must have intended those last filed before the issue of the policy. We are not unmindful of the rule of construe
We cannot so construe this policy. Morse v. Fraternal Accident Society, 190 Mass. 417, is not controlling here. The language there construed differs from the words of the policy before us. Moreover, there was no statute in force when that case was decided dealing with the provisions to be inserted in an accident policy and contemplating that the contract can be “modified” by subsequent changes in
It results that the judge in the Superior Court was wrong in sustaining the demurrer of the plaintiff to so much of the defendant’s answer as sets up this ground of defence. The order is reversed, the demurrer is overruled, and the case is to stand for further proceedings in the trial court.
So ordered.