Carrozza v. National Life Insurance

Citations

• 62 Pa. Super. 153
• 1916 Pa. Super. LEXIS 377

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Life insurance — Application — Misstatements — Illiterate applicant — Misconduct of agent — Evidence — Return of premiums.</p> <p>Where an application for a policy of life insurance is declared to be a warranty of the truth of the facts therein stated, the insured, if the application is filled out by an agent of the company, is not precluded, in an action on the policy, from showing by testimony that, either through the fraud or mistake of the agent his answers were not truly recorded; and the company may not protect itself by reason of such fraud or mistake on the part of its own agent; and this is particularly the case where the applicant was an illiterate foreigner unable to read English to whom the application was not read; and it is immaterial that the application provided “that the company is not bound by any knowledge of or statement made by or to any agent unless written hereon.”</p> <p>In such a case, the plaintiff is not precluded from offering such testimony by the fact that the company had sent him a cheek for the amount of the premiums paid, if it appears that plaintiff did not use the check, until after the company, in its affidavit of defense, had tendered a judgment for that amount as due and owing by it.</p>