Court Opinion

ID: 9639149
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:05:58.45061+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:13.063831
License: Public Domain

ÜSTORTHCOTT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting)-
I am of the opinion that the decree of the court below should be affirmed. The state*467ments made by tbo insured in his application for the policy sought to be canceled were, by the provisions of the policy itself, representations and not warranties. The blood pressure of the insured was not shown by the evidence to have been abnormally high at any. time, and at the time of the application for the policy the blood pressure was proven to be normal. The testimony of the medical experts is to the effect that high blood pressure is a symptom and not a disease, and that it, unless continued for a long time, does not necessarily result in a diseased condition of the arteries. The insured had had headaches, which his physician advised him came from high blood pressure. He was advised to have his tonsils removed, and did so, and his blood pressure became normal. Ho stated these facts to the agent of the company, but the agent did not incorporate them in the application. While under the decision of this court (Fountain & Herrington, Inc., v. Mutual Life Ins. Co., 55 F.(2d) 120) the knowledge of the agent in this respect may not be imputed to the insurance company, the fact that the insured informed the agent of these conditions shows his good faith. That insured refused to take the additional insurance offered him also shows that ho was acting in good faith.
There is no evidence that he did not believe himself to he in good condition physically at the time of the application. The company physician examined him physically and passed him as a good risk. The court below who heard the witnesses found as a fact that the testimony would not warrant a finding that the insured misrepresented the facts or fraudulently concealed them, and further found as a fact that the insured acted “in utmost good faith toward the plaintiff insurance company and disclosed to it all of the material facts with which he was acquainted that were essential to the risk.”
Giving to the findings of the trial judge that weight to which they are entitled (The Corapeake (C. C. A.) 55 F.(2d) 228), and being of the opinion that there was substantial evidence to support those findings, there is no doubt in my mind that the decree of the court below should be affirmed.
To warrant the cancellation, especially after the death of the insured, and to avoid the obligation resting upon an insurance company, the evidence must be “clear, unequivocal, and convincing.” Missouri State life Ins. Co. v. Guess (C. C. A.) 17 F.(2d) 450, 451; Fidelity & Casualty Company v. Phelps, 64 F.(2d) 233, decided by this court April 4, 1933. The evidence here does not, in my opinion, measure up to the required standaxd. There are no sueh circumstances present in this case as were proven in the case of Union Indemnity Co. v. Dodd et al. (C. C. A.) 21 F.(2d) 709, 55 A. L. E. 735, where the insured, himself an agent of the eompany, clearly made false and fraudulent representations as to material facts.
As was said by the judge below in this case: “The rule which governs us in a case of this character is: Canceling an executed contract is an exertion of the most extraordinary power of a court of equity. The power ought not to be exercised except in a clear case, and never for an alleged fraud, unless the fraud be made clearly to appear; never for alleged false representations, unless their falsity is certainly proved, and unless the complainant has been deceived and injured by them. (Atlantic De Laine Co. v. James, 94 U. S. 207, 24 L. Ed. 112.)”
I am therefore of the opinion that the decree of the court below should bo affirmed.