Court Opinion

ID: 9531438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:10:56.593814+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:26.856357
License: Public Domain

BURMAN, J., dissenting: I am of the opinion that on the record in this case the verdict of the jury and the judgment rendered on the verdict by the Circuit Court was correct and should be affirmed. It is uncontradicted that Mr. Pároli, the insured, who was 72 years of age, was covered by an accident insurance policy issued by the defendant. It is uncontroverted that while the policy was in force and effect, Pároli was struck by a car while walking as a pedestrian and died shortly thereafter. It was the undisputed testimony of a coroner’s physician who performed a post mortem, that the sole cause of death was a traumatic subdural or intercranial hemorrhage. Also the broker, Supplee, stated that he and not Par-oil answered the questions and that he did so from his own observations of the insured. It appears that the defendant was one of only a few insurance companies to issue such a special risk policy to persons over 70 and that it charged greater premiums because of the greater risk involved. It is also uncontradicted that neither defendant nor its local agent, Bowes and Company, personally examined the insured before issuing such a special risk policy to this elderly man. In order to avoid payment on the policy, the defendant must prove that the deceased insured made false statements or misrepresentations which materially affected the risk assumed by the company. Furthermore, section 154 of the Insurance Code provides, in part, that “no such misrepresentation or false warranty shall defeat or avoid the policy unless it shall have been made with actual intent to deceive or materially affects either the acceptance of the risk or the hazard assumed by the company.” (Ill Rev Stats 1953, c 73, § 766.) I am of the opinion that the issues of intentional misrepresentation and of agency cannot be decided as a matter of law in this case, but that there is sufficient evidence in the record to require that these issues be submitted to the jury. Where evidence is conflicting or of such a character that different inferences can be drawn therefrom, the questions of fact raised thereby should be submitted to a jury. Marshall v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 405 Ill 90, 90 NE2d 194; Weinstein v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 389 Ill 571, 60 NE2d 207; Firemen’s Ins. Co. v. Horton, 170 Ill 258, 48 NE 955. The evidence pertaining to the agency question is sufficient to support the inference that Supplee, the broker who sold this policy, was not acting as the insured’s agent in filling in the application for insurance or in obtaining the policy. It does not appear that the insured contacted Supplee about obtaining new insurance, but rather the record indicates that it was Supplee who took the initiative. Supplee had accounts with Bowes and Company other than that of the insured and it appears that Supplee had done business with Bowes and Company for many years. Supplee was paid a commission by Bowes and Company for the sale to the insured and it was Supplee who collected the premium and delivered the policy. Whether Supplee, who filled in the insurance application after the insured signed it in blank and who subsequently obtained the policy, was the insured’s agent was a matter of fact to be determined by the jury under all the evidence and the circumstances in the case. Likewise there is evidence in the record from which one might reasonably draw the inference that, even if Supplee was acting as agent for the insured, the answers to the questions on the application were not made with actual intent to deceive or materially affect either the acceptance of the risk or the hazard assumed by the company. Every witness who testified agreed that at the insured’s advanced age of 72 all persons have developed some physical ailments. Especially considering that the risk insured against was not the insured’s health, but the chance of accidental injury, the answers given here do not necessarily indicate intentional deception. Question No. 10 asked, in general terms, “Are you now perfectly well and in sound health?” The evidence reveals that the insured was an operator on the Board of Trade, buying and selling in the various grain pits and that he was active daily in this business to the day of the accident. Question No. 9 asked, “Have you any physical defect or infirmity?” Question No. 8 asked: “Is your sight in any way impaired or have you suffered from any affection of the eyes?” The evidence most favorable to the plaintiff reveals that he was in good health for a man of 72. A personal physical examination by the defendant company would in all likelihood have been favorable to him. Dr. Harry Jackson, the insured’s personal physician for over 25 years, testified that the insured had a longstanding ulcer, hut that during the ten or twelve years before the insured’s death, the doctor did not find any activity of that ulcer. He also testified that the insured “had a very mild form of diabetes.” As Dr. Jackson testified “it is fairly common for a person above 70 to develop the kind of diabetes I found in this man.” The same is probably true about the question concerning impairment of sight and affection of the eyes. Dr. Theodore Zeckman, a physician and surgeon specializing in ophthalmology, testified that he had removed a cataract from the insured’s left eye in 1952. He testified that following the operation there was a gradual improvement in his vision until he had achieved normal, 20 over 20, vision in that eye with some restriction of lateral vision. Because of a special lens for the right eye, the vision in that eye was blurred. In addition the doctor testified that a cataract is not an unusual condition when a person reaches the age of the insured at the time he took out the policy. Whether the insured did make any material representations which would void his policy is, in my opinion, a question of fact to be determined by a jury from the evidence.