Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States
McMaster v. New York Life Insurance
183 U.S. 25
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Date
- 1901-10-28
- Topic
- general
Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court. By the payment of the annual premiums in advance and the delivery of the policies, McMaster’s life became insured in the sum of five thousand dollars. The contracts were not assurances for a single year, with the privilege of renewal from year to year on payment of stipulated premiums, but were entire contracts for life, subject to forfeiture by failure to perform, the condition subsequent of payment as provided ; or to conversion in 1913 at the election of the assured. Thompson v.
Citator
UpLaw has not yet analyzed McMaster v. New York Life Insurance. The absence of a flag is not a finding that it is good law.
- Cited by
- 149 opinions
Headnotes
- Insurance Law — Construction of Policies — Forfeiture Where an insurance policy is so framed as to be fairly open to construction, the construction sustaining rather than forfeiting the contract should be adopted if possible; a forfeiture will not be enforced where the provisions are reasonably susceptible of a meaning that preserves the insured's coverage. 183 U.S. at 33
- Insurance Law — Soliciting Agents — Imputed Knowledge Under an Iowa statute providing that any person who solicits insurance or procures applications therefor is the soliciting agent of the issuing company, anything in the application or policy to the contrary notwithstanding, a provision in the application or policy purporting to make the solicitor the agent of the insured is ineffective, and the company is bound by the agent's statements and acts in the transaction. 183 U.S. at 35
- Insurance Law — Acceptance of Policy — Estoppel by Negligence An insured's mere failure to read a delivered policy, where the policy was altered by the company's agent without the insured's knowledge and the insured was assured by the agent that the policy conformed to what had been represented, does not constitute such negligence as to estop the insured or his representative from denying that he agreed to terms permitting forfeiture of the insurance within the period of coverage for which the premium had been paid. 183 U.S. at 36
- Insurance Law — Annual Premiums — Effect of Payment in Advance Where an annual premium has been paid in advance, a policy provision requiring payment of a like annual premium on a stated date "in every year thereafter" cannot be construed to require the payment of a second annual premium within the year already secured by the first payment; to hold the insurance forfeitable for nonpayment of another premium within that year would contradict the legal effect of the first annual payment. 183 U.S. at 37
- Insurance Law — Grace Period — Forfeiture Where a policy grants a month of grace in the payment of subsequent premiums in addition to the period covered by premiums already paid, and the first annual premium has been paid in full, the insured is entitled to thirteen months' immunity from forfeiture; the insurer may not shorten the grace period by making the second premium payable within the period covered by the first payment. 183 U.S. at 37
- Insurance Law — Date Policies in Force — Forfeiture Where policies were not in force until the date of their actual issue, rather than the date of the application, and the annual premiums were paid in advance on delivery, the second premiums were not demandable on a date earlier than the anniversary of the issue, and the policies could not be forfeited for nonpayment of premiums before the expiration of the full period of coverage and the month of grace secured by the contracts. 183 U.S. at 38
McMASTERv. NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO.,183 U.S. 25(1901)
22 S.Ct. 10
McMASTERv. NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT.
No. 29.
Argued March 18, 1901.
Decided October 28, 1901.
THIS was an action brought by Fred A. McMaster, administrator
of the estate of Frank E. McMaster, deceased, against the New
York Life Insurance Company on five policies of insurance of one
thousand dollars each upon the life of Frank E. McMaster.
The applications were dated December 12, and the policies
December 18, 1893. The premiums for a year in advance were paid,
and the policies delivered December 26, 1893.
McMaster died January 18, 1895, and the defence was that the
insurance had been forfeited by failure in payment of the second
annual premiums on or before January 12, 1895, that is to say,
within thirty days after December 12, 1894, when the company
contended they became due.
The company alleged in a substituted and amended answer that
the policies were executed and delivered December 12, 1893, and
set forth:
"2. This defendant, for further answer, says that said
application is dated the 12th day of December, 1893, and asked
the issuing of five policies of $1000 each upon the life of the
said
Page 27
Frank E. McMaster, deceased. Said application also contained a
request that said five policies each should be issued, dated and
take effect the same date as the application, namely, the 12th
day of December, 1893, and said request was complied with, and
the policies were so issued.
"This defendant grants to the insured in said defendant
company a grace of one month on the payment of premiums, which
extended the day of payment of premiums from December 12th, 1894,
as in the policies issued to said Frank E. McMaster, deceased,
late as the 12th day of January, 1895, but not later.
"3. This defendant, for further answer, says that payment of
the premiums due upon said policies were not paid within the time
prescribed as aforesaid, and that said Frank E. McMaster died on
the 18th day of January, 1895, six days after said policies had
lapsed and were forfeited for non-payment of premiums as
required.
* * * * * * * *
"6. This defendant, further answering said petition, says that
said application is a part of said policies, in each case, that
said assured received and accepted said policies during his
lifetime and had them all in his possession for a long time, and
was aware and knew, or could have known, the contents in each
policy.
"That said assured had paid the premiums when said policies
were delivered to him; that by reason of said assured's
acceptance of said policies, his representative, the plaintiff
herein, is estopped from denying the date of said policies or
claiming that said policies should have a different date from the
application, and is estopped for the reasons above stated from
claiming that said words, to wit: `Please date policy same as
application' were not in said application when insured signed
same, for by accepting said policies the assured waived said
right to object, if said words were inserted, as alleged in
petition after the signing of the application, which this
defendant denies."
The case was tried by the Circuit Court without a jury;
special findings of fact made; and judgment rendered in favor of
defendant. 90 F. 40.
Plaintiff prosecuted a writ of error from the Circuit Court of
Page 28
Appeals and the judgment was affirmed. 99 F. 856. The writ
of certiorari was then allowed.
Pending the trial below, plaintiff filed a bill in equity for
the reformation of the policies, and the Circuit Court granted
the relief prayed. 78 F. 33. On appeal this decree was
reversed, 57 U.S. App. 638; and an application to this court for
certiorari was denied.171 U.S. 687. The Circuit Court of Appeals
expressed the opinion in that case that no recovery could be had
at law or in equity, and accordingly the Circuit Court in this
case, although of opinion that plaintiff was entitled to recover,
gave judgment for defendant.
Separate opinions were given by the judges of the Court of
Appeals, Sanborn and Thayer, JJ., concurring in affirming, and
Caldwell, J., dissenting.
The findings of fact by the Circuit Court were as follows:
"1st. The plaintiff, Fred A. McMaster, was when the suit was
brought and is now, the lawfully appointed administrator of the
estate of Frank E. McMaster, deceased, having been appointed
administrator of the named estate by the probate court of
Woodbury County, Iowa, and furthermore said plaintiff was, when
this suit was brought and is now a citizen of the State of Iowa,
and a resident of Woodbury County, Iowa.
"2d. That the defendant, the New York Life Insurance Company,
was when this suit was brought and is now, a corporation created
under the laws of the State of New York having its principal
office and place of business in the city of New York in the State
of New York, but being also engaged in carrying on its business
of life insurance in the State of Iowa, and other States.
"3d. That in December, 1893, F.W. Smith, an agent for the New
York Life Insurance Company, residing at Sioux City, Iowa,
solicited Frank E. McMaster, to insure his life in that company,
and as an inducement to taking the insurance pressed upon
McMaster the provision adopted by the company and set forth in
the circular issued by the company, and printed on the back of
the policies issued by the company under the heading, `Benefits
and Provisions referred to in this Policy' in the following
words: `After this policy shall have been in force three
Page 29
months, a grace of one month will be allowed in payment of
subsequent premiums, subject to an interest charge of 5 per cent
per annum for the number of days during which the premium remains
due and unpaid. During said month of grace the unpaid premium,
with interest as above, remains an indebtedness due the company,
and in the event of death during said month, this indebtedness
will be deducted from the amount of the insurance.'
"4th. Relying on the benefits of this provision and in the
belief that if he accepted a policy of insurance upon his life,
from the New York Life Insurance Company, paying the premiums
thereon annually, the company could not assert the right of
forfeiture until thirteen months had elapsed since the last
payment of the annual premium, the said Frank E. McMaster signed
an application for insurance in said company, dated December 12,
1893, of the form which is made part of the policies sued on and
attached to the petition, the same being made part of this
finding of facts.
"5th. In the application when signed by Frank E. McMaster, it
was provided that the amount of insurance applied for was the sum
of $5000 to be evidenced by five policies for $1000 each, on the
ordinary life table, the premium to be payable annually.
"6th. There now appears on the face of the application,
interlined in ink, the words, `please date policy same as
application.' These words were not in the application when it was
signed by McMaster, but after the signing thereof, they were
written into the application by F.W. Smith, the agent of the New
York Life Insurance Company, without the knowledge or assent of
Frank E. McMaster, and were so written in by the agent in order
to secure to the agent a bonus which the company allowed to
agents for business secured during the month of December, 1893,
and it does not appear that Frank E. McMaster ever knew that
these words had been written into the application and it
affirmatively appears that he had no knowledge thereof when the
application was forwarded to the home office of the company and
was acted on by the company.
"7th. By the express understanding had between F.W. Smith,
Page 30
the agent of the New York Life Insurance Company and Frank E.
McMaster when the application for insurance was signed, it was
agreed that the first year's premium was to be paid by McMaster
upon the delivery to him of the policies and that the contract of
insurance was not to take effect until the policies were
delivered.
"8th. The defendant company, at its home office in New York
City, upon receipt of the application determined to grant the
insurance applied for and issued five policies each for the sum
of $1000 dated December 18th, 1893, and reciting on the face
thereof that the annual premium on each policy was $21.00 and
forwarded the same to its agent, F.W. Smith, at Sioux City, Iowa,
for delivery to Frank E. McMaster. These five policies are in the
form of the one attached to the petition in this case, which is
hereby made a part of this finding of fact, and each policy
contains the recital: `This contract is made in consideration of
the written application for this policy, and of the agreements,
statements, and warranties thereof, which are hereby made a part
of this contract, and in further consideration of the sum of
twenty-one dollars and ____ cents, to be paid in advance, and of
the payment of a like sum on the twelfth day of December in every
year thereafter during the continuance of this policy.'
"9th. The five policies enclosed in envelopes on or about
December 26th, 1893, were taken by F.W. Smith, the agent of the
defendant company, to the office of Frank E. McMaster, who asked
the agent if the policies were as represented, and if they would
insure him for the period of thirteen months, to which the agent
replied that they did so insure him and thereupon McMaster paid
the agent the full first annual premium or the sum of twenty-one
dollars on each policy and without reading the policies he
received them and placed them away. The agent did not in any way
attempt to prevent McMaster from reading the policies and he had
the full opportunity for reading them, but in fact did not read
them and accepted them on the statement of the agent of the
company as hereinabove set forth.
"10th. That not later than November 17th, 1894, notice was
sent to Frank E. McMaster, of the coming due of the premiums
Page 31
on the policies issued to him by the defendant company, in
accordance with the requirements of the statutes of the State of
New York.
"11th. The renewal receipts for the second annual premium on
the five policies held by Frank E. McMaster, in the defendant
company, were sent for collection to Mary A. Ball, at Sioux City,
Iowa, who on the 11th or 12th day of December, 1894, called on
said McMaster for payment of the premiums in question. At that
time McMaster declined making payment thereon, saying that he had
seen other policies which promised better results and that he did
not think he would renew the insurance in the defendant company.
Miss Ball told him the New York contracts had some nice
provisions like thirty days of grace and loans, and in reply to
an inquiry from McMaster, stated that his policies entitled him
to the month's grace in the payment of the premiums, and that, as
she understood it, the grace on the second premiums would expire
January 11th, and McMaster said if he concluded to keep any of
the insurance he would call and pay for it, before the grace
expired.
"12th. That in November or December, 1894, Frank E. McMaster
was examined for the purpose of obtaining life insurance by the
agents of the Union Central Insurance Company, it being
understood between the parties that the policies were not to
issue until in January, 1895, and it being the purpose of
McMaster to take one or two thousand dollars insurance in the
Union Central Company, at the expiration of his insurance in the
defendant company, but also to continue part of the policies held
in the defendant company.
"13th. That on or about January 15th, 1895, the agent of the
Union Central Company, meeting McMaster on the street in Sioux
City, told him the policies issued by the Union Central Company
had been received, and in reply McMaster said: `All right, just
hold them, there is no hurry about them,' and in the same
conversation he stated that he had other insurance, referring to
the policies in the defendant company.
"14th. That the action of Frank E. McMaster shows, and the
court so finds the fact to be, that the said McMaster believed
that the policies issued to him by the defendant company would
Page 32
continue in force for the period of thirteen months from the date
of the policies and his action with respect to the policies in
the defendant company and the proposed insurance in the Union
Central Company was based upon and governed by this belief on his
part.
"15th. That Frank E. McMaster died at Sioux City on the
morning of January 18th, 1895.
"16th. That up to the time of his death, the said Frank E.
McMaster had not paid the second year's premiums on the policies
issued to him by the defendant company, nor have the same been
paid since his death, nor had the said McMaster received or paid
for the policies issued by the Union Central Company, and the
same had not been delivered or become effectual.
"17th. That due and sufficient notices and proofs of the death
of said Frank E. McMaster were immediately sent to and received
by the defendant company, and due demand for the payment of the
five policies sued on was made by the plaintiff, as administrator
of the estate of Frank E. McMaster, and refused by the defendant
company on the ground that the policies in question had lapsed
and were not in force at the time of the death of said Frank E.
McMaster, by reason of the failure to pay the second year's
premiums coming due on said policies.
"18th. That the defendant company has not paid said policies
or any part thereof, and assuming the same to be valid, there is
due thereon November 1, 1898, the sum of ($5965) five thousand
nine hundred and sixty-five dollars, after deducting from the
face of the policies the amount of the second premiums with
interest thereon to March 14, 1895."
"The policies were dated December 18, 1893, and provided:
"This contract is made in consideration of the
Annual written application for this policy, and of the
Premium agreements, statements and warranties thereof,
$21.00. which are hereby made a part of this contract, and
in further consideration of the sum of twenty-one
dollars and ____ cents, to be paid in advance, and of the payment
of a like sum on the twelfth day of December in every year
thereafter during the continuance of this policy.
Page 33
"After this policy shall have been in force one
Incontestability. full year if it shall
become a claim by death
the company will not contest its payment,
provided the conditions of the policy as to
payment of premiums have been observed.
"The benefits and provisions placed by the company on the next
page, are a part of this contract, as fully as if recited over
the signatures hereto affixed."
"Benefits and provisions referred to in this policy.
"If the insured is living on the 12th day of
Benefits at December in the year nineteen hundred and thirteen,
end of on which date the accumulation period of this
Accumulation policy ends, and if the premiums have been paid in
period. full to said date, the insured shall be entitled to
one of the six benefits following:" [cash value;
annuity; paid up policy, etc., etc.] If the insured made no
selection dividends were to be apportioned as provided.
"(Any indebtedness to the company, including any balance of
the current year's premium remaining unpaid, will be deducted in
any settlement of this policy or of any benefits thereunder.)
"No agent has power in behalf of the company
Powers not to make or modify this or any contract of
Delegated. insurance, to extend the time for paying a
premium, to waive any forfeiture, or to bind
the company by making any promise or making or receiving any
representation or information. These powers can be exercised
only by the president, vice president, second vice president,
actuary, or secretary of the company, and will not be delegated.
"All premiums are due and payable at the home
Payment of office of the company, unless otherwise agreed in
Premiums. writing, but may be paid to agents producing
receipts signed by the president, vice president,
second vice president, actuary or secretary, and countersigned by such
agent. If any premium is not thus paid on or before the day when
due, then (except as hereinafter otherwise provided) this policy
shall become void, and all payments previously made shall remain
the property of the company.
Page 34
"After this policy shall have been in force three
Grace. months, a grace of one month will be allowed in
payment of subsequent premiums, subject to an
interest charge of 5% per annum for the number of days during
which the premium remains due and unpaid. During the said month
of grace, the unpaid premium with interest as above, remains an
indebtedness due the company, and in the event of death during
the said month, this indebtedness will be deducted from the
amount of the insurance."
The applications were dated December 12, 1893, and contained,
among other things, the following:
"Sum to be insured, $5000.
"Five policies of $1000 each.
"Please date policy same as application."[It was averred in
the complaint and found by the Circuit Court that these words in
italics were inserted by the agent after the applications were
signed and without applicant's knowledge.]
| Annually.
"Premium payable
Semi annually
.
|
Quarterly
Note: Strike out the rates not desired.
| Ordinary Life.
| Life premium.
"On what table
| Endowment payable in __________ years.
| Limited endowment payable in __ years.
"I do hereby agree as follows: . . . 2. That inasmuch as only
the officers at the home office of said company, in the City of
New York, have authority to determine whether or not a policy
shall issue on any application and as they act on the written
statements and representations referred to, no statements,
representations, promises or information made or given by or to
the person soliciting or taking this application for a policy, or
by or to any other person, shall be binding on said company, or
in any manner affect its rights, unless such statements,
representations, promises or information be reduced to writing
and presented to the officers of said company, at the home office
in this application. . . . 4. That any policy which may be
Page 35
issued under this application shall not be in force, until the
actual payment to and acceptance of the premium by said company,
or an authorized agent, during my lifetime and good health."
The contracts were not assurances for a single year, with the privilege of renewal from year to year on payment of stipulated premiums, but were entire contracts for life, subject to forfeiture by failure to perform the condition subsequent of payment as provided; or to conversion in 1913 at the election of the assured.Thompsonv.Insurance Company,104 U.S. 252;New York Life Insurance Companyv.Statham,93 U.S. 24.
The contention of the company presented by its answer was that McMaster requested that the policies "should be issued, dated and take effect the same date as the application, namely, the 12th day of December, 1893;" that the policies were accordingly so issued; and that McMaster's acceptance of them estopped his representative from denying that date, or claiming that the request that the policies should be so dated was not made by him.
But the policies were not dated December 12, and were dated December 18, the day on which they were actually issued. The applications were in terms parts of the policies, and by them it was agreed that the policies, though issued, should not be inPage 36force until the actual payment and acceptance of the premiums. This was a provision intended to cover any time which might elapse between issue and delivery and payment. So that notwithstanding the premiums in this instance were not actually paid and received, and the policies delivered until December 26, it may be conceded that, and in accordance with the practice in such matters, the contracts of insurance commenced to run from December 18 rather than from December 26. They were certainly not in force on December 12, 1893. No controversy was raised as to fractions of a day, or the exclusion or inclusion of the first day, and it was conceded that payment on January 12, in one view, or on January 18, in the other, would have averted a forfeiture.
Assuming, however, that the alleged request was not made by McMaster; that it was not, at-least literally, complied with; or that it was immaterial; the company insists that the policies expressly required payment of the annual premiums, subsequent to the first, (payable and paid on delivery,) on December 12 in each year, commencing with December 12, 1894; that McMaster in accepting them without objection became bound by this requirement, and could not plead ignorance thereof resulting from not reading them when tendered; and that, therefore, these policies were properly forfeited January 12, 1895, being twelve months from December 12, 1893, with a month of grace added.
The applications were part of the policies, and from them it appeared, and was found by the Circuit Court, that McMaster applied for insurance "on the ordinary life table, the premium to be payable annually." He was solicited to insure by the company's agent, and might, according to the company's form which was used, have asked that the premiums be payable annually, semi-annually or quarterly, but he chose that they should be payable annually, and that the rate of premium should be calculated on that basis by the ordinary life table. The company assented to this, and fixed the annual premium on each policy at $21, on the payment of which, that is, payment in advance, the policy was to go into effect. The payments were made, and the insurance was put in force for McMaster's life,Page 37subject, it is true, to forfeiture for nonpayment of subsequent premiums, but forfeiture when? If within the first year, then the payment for that year did not secure the immunity from forfeiture during the year, which had been contracted and paid for.
But the company says that McMaster requested that the policies should go into effect on December 12, 1893, and that his representative is estopped from denying that that is the operation of the policies as framed and accepted, or that the second premiums matured December 12, 1894.
It was found from the evidence that after McMaster had signed the applications, and without his knowledge or assent, the agent of the company inserted therein: "Please date policy same as application;" and it was further found that when the policies were returned to Sioux City, and were taken by the company's agent to McMaster, he "asked the agent if the policies were as represented, and if they would insure him for the period of thirteen months, to which the agent replied that they did so insure him, and thereupon McMaster paid the agent the full first annual premium or the sum of twenty-one dollars on each policy, and without reading the policies he received them and placed them away."
We think the evidence of this unauthorized insertion and of what passed between the agent and McMaster when the policies were delivered, taken together, was admissible on the question whether McMaster was bound by the provision that subsequent payments should be made on December 12, commencing with December 12, 1894, because requested by him, or because of negligence on his part in not reading the policies.
The applicable statutes of Iowa declared that "any person who shall hereafter solicit insurance or procure applications therefor, shall be held to be the soliciting agent of the insurance company or association issuing a policy on such application, or on a renewal thereof, anything in the application or policy to the contrary notwithstanding."
Each policy provided that after it had been in force for three months, "a grace of one month will be allowed in payment of subsequent premiums, subject to an interest charge of 5% perPage 38annum for the number of days during which the premium remains due and unpaid. During the said month of grace the unpaid premium, with interest as above, remains an indebtedness due the company, and, in the event of death during said month, this indebtedness will be deducted from the amount of the insurance." This was a month in addition to the period covered by premiums already paid.
McMaster was justified in assuming, and on the findings must be held to have assumed, that if he paid the first annual premium in full he would be entitled to one year's protection, and to one month of grace in addition, that is, to thirteen months' immunity from forfeiture. And the findings show that the company, by its agent, gave that meaning to the clause, and that McMaster was induced to apply for the insurance by reason of the protection he supposed would be thus obtained.
InContinental Life Insurance Companyv.Chamberlain,132 U.S. 304, it was decided that a person procuring an application for life insurance in Iowa became by force of the statute the agent of the company in so doing, and could not be converted into the agent of the assured by any provision in the application.
In that case the applicant was required to state whether he had any other insurance on his life. He was in fact a member of several cooperative associations, and therefore did have other insurance; but the soliciting agent of the company, to whom he stated the facts, believing that insurance of that kind was not insurance within the meaning of the question, wrote "No other" as the proper answer, at the same time assuring the applicant that it was such. And this court held that the company was bound by the interpretation put upon the question by its soliciting agent.
When, then, McMaster signed these applications he understood, and the company by its agent understood, that if the risks were accepted at the home office he would by paying one year's premium in full obtain contracts of insurance which could not be forfeited until after the expiration of thirteen months.
The company accepted the risks and issued the policies December 18, and they were delivered and the premiums paid December 26.Page 39
Bearing in mind that McMaster had made no request of the company in respect of antedating the policies and was ignorant of the interpolation of the agent, and ignorant in fact, and not informed or notified in any way, of the insertion of December 12 as the date for subsequent payments, he had the right to suppose that the policies accorded with the applications as they had left his hands, and that they secured to him on payment of the first annual premiums in advance immunity from forfeiture for thirteen months. And the agent assured him that this was so.
The situation being thus we are unable to concur in the view that McMaster's omission to read the policies, when delivered to him and payment of the premiums made, constituted such negligence as to estop plaintiff from denying that McMaster by accepting the policies agreed that the insurance might be forfeited within thirteen months from December 12, 1893.Knights of Pythiasv.Withers,177 U.S. 260, and cases cited;Fitchnerv.FidelityMut. Fire Assoc.,103 Iowa 276;Hartford c. Ins. Co. v.Cartier,89 Mich. 41.
On the other hand, can the company deny that McMaster obtained insurance which was not forfeitable for nonpayment of premiums within thirteen months after the first payment?
If it can, by reason of its own act, without McMaster's knowledge, actual, or legally imputable, then the company's conduct would have worked a fraud on McMaster in disappointing, without fault on his part, the object for which his money was paid. The motive of the agent to get a bonus for himself rather than to deceive McMaster is not material, as the result of his action would be the same. To permit the company to deny the acts and statements on which the transaction rested would produce the same injury to McMaster, no matter what the agent's motives.
But what is the proper construction of these contracts in respect of the asserted forfeiture? The company, although retaining the premiums paid and not offering to return them, contends that if McMaster was not bound by an agreement that the subsequent premiums should be paid on December 12, then that the minds of the parties had not met because it had notPage 40contracted except on the basis of payments so to be made, but the question still remains whether the right of recovery in this case is dependent on such payment on the 12th day of December, 1894, or within thirty days thereafter.
We are dealing purely with the question of forfeiture, and the rule is that if policies of insurance contain inconsistent provisions or are so framed as to be fairly open to construction, that view should be adopted, if possible, which will sustain rather than forfeit the contract.Thompsonv.PhoenixInsurance Company,136 U.S. 287;National Bankv.InsuranceCompany,95 U.S. 673.
Each of these policies recited that it was made in consideration of the written application therefor, which was made part thereof, and of the payment in advance of an annual premium of twenty-one dollars, "and of the payment of a like sum on the twelfth day of December in every year thereafter during the continuance of this policy."
Does this latter provision require payment of an annual premium during the year already secured from forfeiture by payment made in advance?
May not the words "in every year thereafter" mean in every year after the year, the premiums for which have been paid? Or, in every year after the current year from the date of the policy?
At all events, if the payment in advance was a payment which put in force a contract good for life, determinable by nonpayment of subsequent premiums, and this first payment was payment of the premiums for a year, could the requirement of payment of a second annual premium within that year be given greater effect than the right to cancel the policies from January 18, 1895, if such payment were not tendered until after the lapse of thirteen months from December 12, 1893?
To hold the insurance forfeitable for nonpayment of another premium within the year for which payment had already been fully made would be to contradict the legal effect under the applications and policies of the first annual payment. Clearly, such a construction is uncalled for, if the words "the twelfth day of December in every year thereafter" could be assumedPage 41to mean in every year after the year for which the premiums had been paid. But if not, taking all the provisions together, and granting that the words included December 12, 1894, nevertheless it would not follow that forfeiture could be availed of to cut short the thirteen months' immunity from December 18, 1893, as the premiums had already been paid up to December 18, 1894. And the company could not be allowed, on this record, by making the second premiums payable within the period covered by the payment of the first premium, to defeat the right to the month of grace which had been proffered as the inducement to the applications, and had been relied on as secured by the payment. If death had occurred on December 18, 1894, or between the twelfth and eighteenth, it is quite clear that recovery could have been had, and as the contracts were for life, and were not determinable, (at least for twenty years,) at a fixed date, but only by forfeiture, it appears to us that the applicable rules of construction forbid the denial of the month of grace in whole or in part.
It is worthy of remark that it was specifically provided that after the policies had been in force one full year they should become incontestable on any other ground than nonpayment of premiums, and we suppose it will not be contended that if any other ground of contest had existed and death had occurred between December 12 and December 18, 1894, the company would have been cut off from making its defence, because the policies had been in force "one full year" from December 12.
And if not in force until December 18, the date of actual issue, how can it be said that liability to forfeiture accrued before the twelve months had elapsed?
The truth is the policies were not in force until December 18, and as the premiums were to be paid annually, and were so paid in advance on delivery, the second payments were not demandable on December 12, 1894, as a condition of the continuance of the policies from the twelfth to the eighteenth. And, as the policies could not be forfeited for nonpayment during that time, the month of grace could not be shortened by deducting the six days which belonged to McMaster of right.
In our opinion the payment of the first year's premiums madePage 42the policies non-forfeitable for the period of thirteen months, and inasmuch as the death of McMaster took place within that period, the alleged forfeiture furnished no defence to the action.The judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals is reversed;the judgment of the Circuit Court is also reversed, and the causeis remanded to the latter court with a direction to enterjudgment for plaintiff in accordance with the eighteenth finding,with interests and costs.
MR. JUSTICE BREWER did not hear the argument and took no part in the decision.