Court Opinion

ID: 9883383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:41:22.067364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:22.958777
License: Public Domain

NIERENGARTEN, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority opinion notes with approval Minnesota Mutual’s argument that the standard used to determine whether the insured willfully misrepresented his condition to the insurer as objective and that subjective beliefs by the insured of his condition are irrelevant. To the contrary. I submit the standard as interpreted by the Minnesota Supreme Court necessarily involves examination of the insured’s subjective intent.
In Howard v. Aid Association for Lutherans, 272 N.W.2d 910 (Minn.1978), the supreme court cited with approval the standard used to determine whether an insured has willfully misrepresented his physical condition on a life insurance application. Crucial to the standard is the requirement that an insured have full knowledge of his condition at the time of the application. The Howard court stated:
“[T]he question should not be whether or not the applicant was afflicted with a particular disease, but whether at the time of application facts of which the insured had full knowledge were concealed from the insurer * * * and were of such probative force as in all reasonable probability, if brought to the knowledge of the company, would have precluded the issuance of the policy.’ ”
Howard, 272 N.W.2d at 913 (quoting Hofmann v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., 400 F.Supp. 827, 834 (D.Md.1975) (emphasis supplied).
To determine whether the insured had full knowledge of his condition at the time of the application requires examination not only of whether he knew of his condition but also whether he fully understood the significance of his condition. Here the decedent insured gave a negative response in his application for life insurance to the question of whether he had been told he had high blood pressure. The information possessed by Berthiaume at the time he completed the application creates a genuine fact issue as to whether his denial intentionally concealed facts which, if known to the insurer, would have precluded the issuance of the policy.
A material fact issue arises concerning whether Berthiaume had full knowledge of the potential consequences of his high blood pressure. The majority notes in its opinion that Berthiaume was diagnosed on three separate occasions as having a blood pressure problem. Although diagnosed as having high blood pressure, Berthiaume’s activities were never restricted nor did his problem result in the loss of certification for his school bus driver’s position. He could well have concluded given his manner of treatment that his condition was not serious in nature.
I would reverse the trial court’s grant, of summary judgment in favor of the insured. A factual issue exists as to whether the insured willfully misrepresented his physical condition to the insurer when he completed his application.