Court Opinion

ID: 9446961
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:22:32.030232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:50.771292
License: Public Domain

*872RIVES, Chief Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
With commendable candor the appellant’s counsel has I think, confessed by letter that the Court erred in favor of his client in the respect to which the petition for rehearing is granted, and of course, to that extent, I concur. Tentatively, however, I think that the rehearing should be further granted in to-to, and that the judgment of the district court should be affirmed.
At the present juncture, I would have the Court request counsel to submit additional briefs on substantially the following questions:
1. Just what papers constitute the contract of insurance sued on? Does not the contract itself provide in effect that it consists of the group policy which became effective on July 1, 1953, of the amendment to that policy dated September 6, 1957, of the applications of the Trustee for the group policy and for the amendment thereto, and of the individual applications of the employees insured; and, further, that the certificates delivered to each insured employee, together with any riders to be attached to such certificates, do not constitute a part of the contract of insurance ?
2. In view of the pertinent provision of Alabama Code of 1940, Title 28, Sec. 75, quoted in the margin,1 can the courts properly give the insurer the benefit of any provision not “plainly expressed in the policy?” Is not the last sentence of the quotation in the marginal footnote2 inadvertently too broad, and should not that language be restricted to the holdings of the cases cited in the preceding sentence; that is, that the statute as applied to group policies permits (unless excluded by the terms of the particular contract) consideration of the group policy, of the individual certificate, and of the applications for such policy and for such certificate?
3. Considering those matters only which we are permitted to consider, and excluding those excluded either by the policy itself or by the Alabama statute, is it not clear that, although the new “program” or “plan” became effective June 1, 1957, the increased coverage of any eligible employee whose employer elected to come under the new plan prior to June 1, 1957, became effective on the date of such election, provided such employee was actively at work on that date ?
I concur in the granting of the petition for rehearing in part, but respectfully dissent from its partial denial, and think that the rehearing should be granted in toto.

. “No life nor any other insurance company nor any agent thereof shall make any contract of insurance or agreement as to policy contract other than is plainly expressed in the policy issued thereon * *
For eases construing that statute see Manhattan Life Ins. Co. v. Verneuille, 1008, 156 Ala. 592, 47 So. 72, 74; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Allen, 1909, 166 Ala. 159, 51 So. 877, 879, 880; Empire Life Ins. Co. v. Gee, 1911, 171 Ala. 435, 55 So. 166, 167.

. “ * * * In support of Ms position the appellant cites Page v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America, 231 Ala. 405, 165 So. 388; Life Ins. Co. of Virginia v. Hanback, 250 Ala. 643, 35 So.2d 696; All States Life Ins. Co. v. Steward, 242 Ala. 258, 5 So.2d 784. As to these cases, we think it sufficient to observe that they all deal with group policies and this court has consistently held that the provisions of § 8371, Code 1923, have no application to such policies.” Alldredge v. Security Life & Trust Company, 1956, 265 Ala. 470, 92 So.2d 26, 29.