Court Opinion

ID: 9590924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:59:37.190741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:06.685476
License: Public Domain

Baker, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
This is an action upon an alleged policy of accident insurance on the life of respondent’s husband in the sum of $1,000.00, the issuance of which is denied by the appellant.
A trial of the case in the Circuit Court resulted in a verdict for the respondent for the sum mentioned. Judgment in accord was duly entered, and this appeal followed.
At the close of respondent’s presentation of evidence, the appellant made a motion for a nonsuit, which was denied. At the close of all of the evidence the appellant made a motion for a direction of verdict in its behalf, and this motion was refused. After the verdict was published, the appellant made a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto which was likewise refused. The appeal is from the rulings of the Court on these motions and the judgment entered.
On March 3, 1951, the respondent submitted to the appellant two applications for accident insurance; one on her own life, the other on the life of her husband James B. Moore, she being the beneficiary named in the application for the accident policy on the life of her said husband. These *506applications were received by an agent of the appellant, accompanied with a deposit of 20‡ made on each, and on the understanding as stated in the receipt therefor, that the deposit would be returned if the applications were not approved by the appellant company. Five weeks later, an agent of the appellant, while collecting from the respondent on some other insurance she already had with it, delivered to respondent the accident policy on her life and collected the accrued premiums thereon, and told her that he had not heard anything from her husband’s policy (the policy here involved), and that he was not sure whether it would go through or not; that “we just wrote worlds of them and haven’t had time to get them back.” The respondent then and there asked the agent “did he want to just put that (the 20‡ paid when the application was made) on my premium or let it stand. He said let it stand and in a few days he’d see.” The next time respondent saw the agent was five weeks thereafter. She again asked him if her husband’s policy had come in, and he replied that it hadn’t. She then asked him if he wanted to put it (the 20^) on her premium, and he replied, “Let it stand. There was some policies came in. I’m pretty sure it might have come in that bunch.” Respondent told the agent her husband had said “that if it wasn’t going through, he wanted to take out the insurance with another company.” The agent replied, “I’ll let you know in a few days.”
It was on Saturday morning following the Monday morning when her husband was buried that respondent again saw an agent of appellant company. Her husband was killed in an accident on June 3rd, three months after the application for the accident insurance and approximately two weeks after her last conversation with appellant’s agent detailed in the preceding paragraph. On this Saturday morning when an agent of the appellant came to respondent’s home for the purpose of collecting premiums on her policies, she did not see the agent, but communicated with him through her niece who went to the door. We here quote from the record.
*507“A. * * * She came into the house and told me and I gave her the money. I told her that before you say anything to him about his being dead, unless he mentions it to you about the policy, first, you ask him did he bring the policy before you tell him he is dead. She went back and asked him. Pie told her to tell me that Mr. Newell wasn’t with the company any more, the man that wrote the policy. He would have the manager to come to see me about it Monday morning.
“Q. What happened then? A. Instead of waiting until Monday morning, he left and was gone about 30 minutes and comes flying in there with a statement saying my husband was turned down because of being a truck driver at the time he took that out.
“I had not been told at any time between the filing of the application on March 3 and the death of my husband three months later on June 3 that my application for a policy on his life was turned down.”
The testimony of the respondent on cross-examination in question and answer form follows:
“Q. Mrs. Moore, this is the application I believe you said bears the name of James B. Moore, which you wrote with the authority of your husband? (Indicating.) A. That’s right.
“Q. ‘Such policy, if issued, to become effective * * *’ (Reading from application).
“Q. You understood, of course, in handing this in that he wouldn’t be insured until the company passed upon it? A. That is what I have always thought.
“Q. This is the receipt which Mr. Newell gave you in return for the 20<¡ ? A. Yes, sir, that is the receipt.
“Q. Which reads, ‘Received of Moore,’ that is meaning you, ‘the sum of 20‡. The same to become a deposit of 2Q<¡: on account of application for policy with the Palmetto State Life Insurance Company. It is understood that it will be returned in the event the policy is not issued — ’
*508“Q. Did you understand it that way? A. Yes, I did.
“Q. At the time you applied for a policy yourself? A. I did.
“Q. After five weeks Mr. Newell came to your house and delivered your policy? A. Yes, sir, he did.”
On redirect examination, respondent testified that when the agent of the appellant, after talking to her niece at the door, came back that day he informed her that the application of her husband had been rejected and offered to refund to her the 20$ she had paid when she applied for the insurance, but that she declined to accept it.
The application for the insurance provided that the policy "if issued” would become effective as of the date of the policy; and the occupation of the proposed insured was stated therein as “long hauling truck driver.” This application was sent to the Home Office of the appellant in Columbia and in due course considered by its Underwriting Department and declined on March 19, 1951, because of the hazardous occupation of the applicant. According to the custom of the appellant company, the Home Office on the same day sent to the District Manager at Anderson, the office from which the application was received, information on a company form showing that the application had been declined because of the occupational hazard. It was the duty of the agent who had received the application to have advised the respondent that it had been declined, and return to her the sum of 20$ deposited with the application. In fact, as aforestated, the receipt which was issued for the 20$ when it was paid stated that the deposit would be returned if the application was not approved by the appellant company. Appellant company does not write accident insurance policies on “long hauling truck drivers” or “transport truck drivers.”
There is a conflict in the testimony as to the conversation between respondent and the agent of appellant, and some other minor matters, but in the light of the issues in this appeal, we necessarily accept the respondent’s version of the matter.
*509The complaint of the respondent alleges on information and belief that pursuant to an application, appellant issued a policy on the life of her husband and the delivery thereof was negligently delayed in its office, but that even in the absence of an issuance of an actual policy, the appellant should be estopped to deny the issuance of the policy. The answer for a first defense pleaded a general denial; and for a second defense made allegations substantially in accord with the facts as set out hereinabove immediately following the summary of respondent’s testimony. Therefore, in the view we take of this case, the only questions to which we will direct our attention are:
(1) Did the trial Judge err in submitting to the jury the issue (if there is such issue) whether a policy of insurance was issued by the appellant on the life of respondent’s husband, and (2) Did he err in submitting to the jury the issue of whether appellant should be estopped to deny the issuance of a policy of insurance on the life of respondent’s husband.
The uncontradicted testimony of the underwriter and manager of the Weekly Premium Department of the appellant company, supported by his office records, shows that the policy was not issued, and to the contrary was declined, and notice thereof sent from the Home Office in Columbia to the District Manager at Anderson, the office of appellant where the application originated.
There is not a scintilla of testimony that the appellant ever approved the application for this insurance and that a policy was ever issued.
We now come to the second issue, that is, under the facts of this case and the governing law, is the appellant estopped to deny the issuance of the policy.
In Palmer v. Sovereign Camp, W. O. W., 197 S. C. 379, 391, 15 S. E. (2d) 655, 661, it is stated: “The principle of estoppel in equity stands upon the very foundations of right and fair dealing. It considers and weighs the conduct *510of men in their dealings with each other, and gives that effect and meaning to their actions which common sense and justice dictate.”
A succinct statement of the law governing equitable estoppel is contained in Baker v. Mutual Loan & Investment Co., 218 S. C. 47, 55, 61 S. E. (2d) 387, 390, as follows:
“Ordinarily, to constitute estoppel, there must be conduct, acts, language or silence amounting to a representation or concealment of facts, and the party claiming the estoppel must have acted upon it, and thereby changed his position for the worse. Cannon v. Baker, 97 S. C. 116, 81 S. E. 478.”
In his order refusing the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, the trial Judge cites Keller v. Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co., 213 S. C. 339, 49 S. E. (2d) 577, and McGrath v. Piedmont Mutual Ins. Co., 74 S. C. 69, 54 S. E. 218, on the principle of estoppel. The facts of these cases are so different from the facts of the case under discussion that they cannot be considered as authority. However, the principles of law in reference to estoppel laid down in these cases are apposite here; and we quote from the Keller case, which in part states the identical principle as that stated in the McGrath case.
“An application for life insurance is a mere offer or proposal and, until accepted, no contractual relationship exists between the applicant and the insurance company. The mere mailing and filing of such application can never be deemed an acceptance. ‘Something more is necessary to be shown, either an actual acceptance, or such circumstances as may imply acceptance, or estoppel from denying acceptance.’ McGrath v. Piedmont Mutual Insurance Co., 74 S. C. 69, 54 S. E. 218, 220. ‘A mere intention or mental determination on the part of the insurer to accept the application is not of itself sufficient to effect a binding contract.’ 29 Am. Jur., page 155. ‘There must be some outward manifestation’ of its assent. Bowman v. Northern Accident Co., 124 Mo. App. 477, 101 S. W. 691. Acceptance must be signified by some *511act from which the insurer cannot recede without liability. Upon the filing of an application, it is the duty of the insurer to act upon it with reasonable promptness and, in the meantime, to refrain from doing anything reasonably calculated to mislead the applicant.” [213 S. C. 339, 49 S. E. (2d) 582.]
The delay in giving notice to the respondent of the rejection of the application for the insurance did not create a presumption that the application had been favorably passed upon, when, as here, the respondent could not have believed, and she did not so testify, that it had been favorably passed upon and that a policy had been issued. AVe quote from 29 Am. Jur., Insurance, Section 141, as follows: “It is a well-settled rule, established by the great weight of authority, that mere delay in passing upon an application for insurance cannot be construed as an acceptance thereof by the insurer which will support an action ex contractuAnd from 19 Am. Jur., Estoppel, from Section 83: “It is essential to the existence of an equitable estoppel that the representation, whether consisting of words, acts, or omissions, of the party against whom the estoppel is asserted shall have been believed by the party claiming the benefit thereof and that he shall have relied thereon and been influenced and misled thereby.” And from same volume and subject, from Section 84: “Not only must the party claiming an estoppel have believed and relied upon the words or conduct of the other party, but also he must have been thereby induced to act, or to refrain from acting, in such a manner and to such an extent as to change his position or status from that which he would otherwise have occupied.”
Respondent knew that the receipt for the 20‡ deposit did not bind the appellant company to insure her husband’s life and, with commendable frankness, admitted that she understood that the policy would not be issued unless the application for the insurance was approved. Recapitulating, five weeks after the applications were sent in, and when her accident policy was being delivered to her, she inquired of appel*512lant’s agent if her husband’s policy had come in and was told that nothing had been heard therefrom and that he wasn’t sure whether it would go through or not. She then inquired if he wanted to apply the 20‡ deposit on her premiums or let it stand, and she acquiesced in his proposal to “let it stand.” Five weeks later, when the agent of appellant was at her home for the purposes of collecting the premiums on her policies, she inquired if her husband’s policy had come in, and was informed that it hadn’t. She then, for the second time, suggested that the 20<¡> be applied on her premiums, but when the agent again recommended that she let it stand, stating that some policies had come in and he was “pretty sure it might have come in that bunch,” and that he would let her “know in a few days,” she acquiesced.
Respondent did not again see or hear from the agent until he came around to collect premiums on her policies approximately one week after the death of her husband on June 3rd, and what took place at that time has hereinbefore been quoted from the record. Although the agent of the appellant did not notify the respondent that the issuance of a policy on this application had definitely been declined until after the death of her husband, we think it is obvious from the record that respondent did not believe that a policy had been issued, but had kept in her mind the possibility, even the hope, that one would be issued. The statements of the agent of appellant to her, intelligent woman she appears to be, could not have caused her to believe that the policy had been issued. As stated by appellant’s counsel in their printed brief, the ultimate issue is not whether the agent tried to mislead the respondent, but whether she was actually misled —not into believing that her policy might be issued, but into believing that her policy had been issued. The fact that her husband might have applied elsewhere for insurance and might possibly have gotten it, does not justify a suit on a policy never issued. Respondent and her husband had the right to apply to another insurance company for insurance at any time and, viewing the testimony in the light most *513favorable to respondent, we can reach no other conclusion than that she, at most, could only have hoped that the policy had been issued. Whether any other insurance company would have written insurance on respondent’s husband if she had applied therefor, is, of course, problematical.
This being an action ex contractu, the trial Judge erred in refusing appellant’s motion for a direction of verdict.
The foregoing was written as and for the opinion of the Court, but the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Oxner having become the prevailing opinion, it is filed as a dissent.
We are in accord with the cited law in the majority opinion, but, with all deference, we think it obvious that such law is not applicable to the facts of this case.
Even though the facts of this case may support an action in tort, and the damages would be the same, yet such damages would have to be recovered in a proper action, to wit, an action in tort and not on contract.
Judgment appealed from should be reversed, and the case remanded for entry of judgment in favor of the appellant.
Taylor, J., concurs.