(Download) "Insurance Company v. Mahone" by United States Supreme Court * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Insurance Company v. Mahone
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1874
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 58 KB
Description
Messrs. Isaac Hazlehurst and E. L. Stanton, for the plaintiffs in error; Messrs. J. M. Carlisle and J. D. McPherson, contra. That there is no substantial reason for complaining of the ruling of the court in receiving the testimony of the witness Cox the reception of which constitutes the basis of the first assignment of error–is, we think, fully shown by what was decided in Insurance Company v. Wilkinson,1 and in the cases therein mentioned. The testimony was admitted, not to contradict the written warranty, but to show that it was not the warranty of Dillard, though signed by him. Prepared, as it was, by the company's agent, and the answer to No. 5 having been made, as the witness proved, by the agent, the proposals, both questions and answers, must be regarded as the act of the company, which they cannot be permitted to set up as a warranty by the assured. And this is especially so when, as in this case, true answers were in fact made by the applicant (if the witness is to be believed), and the agent substituted for them others, now alleged to be untrue, thus misrepresenting the applicant as well as deceiving his own principals. Nor do we think it makes any difference that the answers as written by the agent were subsequently read to Dillard and signed by him. Having himself answered truly, and Yeiser having undertaken to prepare and forward the proposals, Dillard had a right to assume that the answers he did make were accepted as meaning, for the purpose of obtaining a policy, what Yeiser stated them in writing to be. The acts and declarations of Yeiser are to be considered the acts and declarations of the company whose agent he was, and Dillard was justified in so understanding them. The transaction, therefore, was substantially this: The company asked Dillard, 'Are you temperate and regular in your habits?' to which he answered, 'I never refuse to take a drink,' or, 'I always take my drinks.' To this the company replied, in effect, 'We understand your answer to mean the same, in your application for a policy, as if you had answered 'yes,' and we accept it as such, and write 'yes' in the proposals.' Then, upon being asked whether he warranted the truth of his answers, he returned the reply, 'Since you so understand my answers, I do.' Surely, after such a transaction, the company cannot be permitted to say that the applicant is bound by what was written in the proposals for insurance as his warranty. And that such was the transaction the evidence received by the court tended to prove. The first assignment of error, therefore, cannot be sustained. Nor can the sixth, which is to the charge of the court, and which presents substantially the same question as that raised by the first.
 "Insurance Company v. Mahone" by United States Supreme Court * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}