64 Mo. App. 172 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1895
Joseph Williamson applied for insurance upon his own life in the sum of $196, payable to plaintiff, who was the creditor of the insured, and who paid the premium on the making of the application and all calls thereafter made under the policy, which was issued and delivered to plaintiff and kept by him until the death of said Williamson, whereupon plaintiff took the policy and receipt book for premiums paid by him thereon, and delivered them for payment to the agent of the company, receiving a receipt for the policy and book thus surrendered. At the time the application for the insurance was made, one Anderson, who was employed to solicit and write such applications for defendant, wrote out the one in question, and by direction of plaintiff and Williamson inserted plaintiff’s name therein as payee of the policy and delivered it in this state to the company’s agent Hudless, who afterward, with the knowledge of said Williamson, but
This provision was before us at this term in another cause between the same parties (63 Mo. App. 404) and received interpretation. It was there held that the defendant could not, after having received from the hands of the plaintiff a policy delivered to him as security for the indebtedness of the assured, arbitrarily pay the amount due upon the death of the insured to another beneficiary, simply because the latter was
Appellant next insists that the change in the name of the beneficiary, made by its agent after the delivery to him of the application for insurance, was a matter of which plaintiff was not entitled to be advised. Whether this contention is correct or not, it does not affect the right of respondent to recover in this action. The evidence is undisputed that he was a lawful beneficiary; that he held the policy by a valid transfer and delivery as a security for the indebtedness due him by the assured; that he paid all the premiums for its procurement and to keep.it alive; that he retained possession of it until the death of the assured, and then surrendered it to the defendant upon receiving its receipt therefor, and thereafter was told by defendant’s agent that it had elected to pay the public administrator. That defendant, being thus apprised of plaintiff’s interest, could not in good faith ignore his rights and capriciously select another beneficiary whom it reserved the right to pay by the clause of its policy introduced in evidence, is what was decided in the case above quoted. Hence, it was wholly immaterial whether or not respondent’s name was inserted in the application for the policy, since the only purpose of such insertion would have been to affect appellant with notice which all the evidence shows was fully had by appellant. We must, therefore, overrule the second assignment of error.
For these reasons, also, the conversation between appellant’s agent and the assured, had in the absence of plaintiff, relative to the change in the application, is immaterial. For, as we have seen under the facts in this record, the plaintiff would have been entitled to recover, although his name as beneficiary had not been