Court Opinion

ID: 9641458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:32:38.909467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:37.617403
License: Public Domain

Carretón Harris, Chief Justice, concurring. I thoroughly agree with the majority that, under the code, the insurer must show a causal relation between the applicant’s misrepresentation and the eventual loss. Under the record, it is my own view that William R. People was probably not in good health at the time he applied for an obtained the credit life policy for the amount of the debt; however, it is not at all entirely clear to me that Mr. People knew that he was not in good health. I have noticed from time to time, in these cases involving credit life insurance that the affirmative statement called for from the applicant is rather general in nature, (I am now in good health) and can, in many instances, be honestly answered by the applicant by “Yes”, though actually he or she may not be in good health. For instance, perhaps one had open heart surgery a few months ago, or an operation on one of his carotid arteries which was partially blocked, endangering the flow of blood to the brain. He is told by his doctor that the operation was successful, and he genuinely feels that he has no further problems and is in good health. In fact, I know of an individual who underwent open heart surgery, and who is using a pacemaker. He constantly plays tennis and engages in other sports and considers himself as getting along fine, but I doubt seriously that an insurance company would consider him an acceptable risk. This man probably could honestly answer the question by stating that he is in good health, though the prospective insurer would disagree. It would appear to me that the company selling credit life insurance, in its application form, could follow the practice generally followed by insurance companies selling regular life insurance policies, and propound more specific questions which, when answered falsely, if material, would enable the company to avoid liability because of fraud. I refer to such questions as whether one has been in the hospital any time during the last three years, consulted a physician within the last three years, ever been told he had high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. On the basis of such answers, the company can intelligently determine whether to consider the man a good insurance risk.1 If answers are in the negative and are false, this fact should not be difficult to establish. I recognize that most persons who apply for credit life insurance are primarily interested in purchasing some article of value, such as an automobile, television, etc., and that the insurance is more or less secondary, suggested by the seller, and if an applicant has to take time to read an application with several questions, he may not purchase the insurance. Of course, it is also “short term” insurance. I can only say if the insurance company selling credit life insurance is willing to take the risk of asking only general questions, it will just have to also take the chance of perhaps paying benefits to the designee of an applicant who was not in good health when he applied for the policy. At any rate, I only desire to point out that liability for fraudulent claims could largely be done away with if specific questions were directed to the applicant. Holt, J., joins in this concurrence.   Actually, some companies selling credit life insurance do set out questions relating to specific ailments in the application form.