Court Opinion

ID: 9653462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:46:56.501416+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:59.313881
License: Public Domain

MONTGOMERY, Chief Justice
(dissenting) .
I respectfully dissent because the decision embodied in the majority opinion, in effect, overrules a long line of decisions, including two very recent ones, Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company v. Combs, Ky., 432 S.W.2d 415, and Paxton v. Lincoln Income Life Insurance Company, Ky., 433 S.W.2d 636, both of which are still in the advance sheets. Both decisions were based on the rule that under KRS 304.656 a misrepresentation that is material or fraudulent bars a recovery. The majority opinion uses as authority a textbook and some obsolete cases.
In Metropolitan Life Insurance Company v. Tannebaum, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 566, the rule under the statute was stated thus:
“Under the section just quoted this Court has uniformly held that a material misrepresentation in an application for an insurance policy, though innocently made, will avoid it and that, although the misrepresentation may not be material, yet if it is fraudulently made by the insured it will, nevertheless, avoid the policy. The Maccabees v. Covert, 302 Ky. 481, 194 S.W.2d 498; Prudential Insurance Company of America v. Lampley, 297 Ky. 495, 180 S.W.2d 399; Business Men’s Assur. Co. of America v. Conley, 280 Ky. 375, 133 S.W.2d 554; and Ford v. Commonwealth Life Ins. Co., 252 Ky. 565, 67 S.W.2d 950.”
The facts of the present case bring it under the statute and within the long-established rule. McReynolds signed applications for nonmedical accident and health policies, knowing that he had disclosed to the agent that he had had heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. He admits that he knew the agent put false answers of “No” to the questions concerning whether he had had any of those ailments when the true and correct answers should have been “Yes.” A summary judgment for the appellant should have been given. The facts are not in controversy.
The opinion seeks to excuse McReynolds by belittling the extent of McReynolds’ ailments. Certainly there can be no argument that answers as to whether one has had heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes in any degree are material to the risk involved in the kind of policies sought. His knowledge of the wrong answers shows fraud. McReynolds had a severe stroke one month later, rendering him totally disabled.
Such answers are the basis upon which the insurance company is warned of a bad risk and enable it to have a medical examination made to determine the extent of the risk. It is not for the agent or applicant to pass judgment on the sufficiency of such answers. There is a duty of full disclosure so that the company may make an investigation. Under the principle of the majority opinion, any applicant could very well get by with an answer of “No” to the question “Are you pregnant?” if the applicant’s answer was, in fact, “A little bit.” Obviously this is wrong and is the very thing sought to be guarded against by KRS 304.656 and the line of cases that are now respectively repealed and overruled.
The instability created in the law by such a decision is both deplorable and frustrating. It creates uncertainty in another area of the law. The court should be a steadying influence instead of a disruptive one. If the statute and decisions are so wrong, surely the General Assembly, in its many sessions, could have repealed or amended the statute. It is not the function of this court to do so. In all decency, the court should not overrule cases before they are out of the advance sheets. “The body should be permitted to get cold.”
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.