Case ID: ill-app_192/html/0073-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Presiding Justice Barnes", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Joseph Podlesak, Appellee, v. Royal Neighbors of America, Appellant.
    Gen. No. 19,875.
    (Not to be reported in full.)
    Appeal from the County Court of Cook county; the Hon. David T. Smiley, Judge, presiding. Heard in the Branch Appellate Court at the October term, 1913.
    Reversed with finding of fact.
    Opinion filed March 23, 1915.
    Rehearing denied April 8, 1915.
    Statement of the Case.
    Action by Joseph Podlesak, plaintiff, against Boyal Neighbors of America, a corporation, defendant, on a benefit certificate issued by defendant to the wife of plaintiff.
    Defendant contended that the insured was guilty of material misrepresentation in her answers to questions in her- application wherein she stated that she had not consulted a physician for personal ailments within seven years and had not had pneumonia. To support its contention defendant introduced evidence showing that the insured had pneumonia four months before the date of the application and was treated for it by a physician. The evidence also showed that she died of pulmonary tuberculosis. From a judgment for plaintiff for one thousand dollars, defendant appeals.
    
      Abstract of the Decision.
    Insurance, § 753*—when false answer in application a material misrepresentation. Where an applicant for insurance states in her application, in answering a question therein, that she had not consulted a physician within the preceding seven years and had never had pneumonia, while the evidence shows that four months before the date of the application a physician had treated her for pneumonia and that she had pneumonia, such false answers are material misrepresentations which render the policy void,
    U. A. Screechfield and A. W. Fulton, for appellant.
    Jones, Kerner & Posvic, for appellee; DeWitt C. Jones, of counsel.
   Mr. Presiding Justice Barnes

delivered the opinion of the court.