Dubcich v. Grand Lodge Ancient Order of United Workmen

Citations

• 33 Wash. 651
• 74 P. 832
• 1903 Wash. LEXIS 567

Syllabus

<p>Appeal—Review—Motion for New Trial—Necessity. A motion for a new trial is not necesary to secure a review of rulings made by the trial court during the progress of the trial, and Code of 1881, § 450, dispensing with, the necessity of motions for new trials is not essential to the rule, in view of Bal. Code, § 6520, authorizing the review of intermediate orders or determinations on appeal from any final judgment.</p> <p>Witnesses—Privileged Communications-—Physician and Patient. Testimony of a physician as to the physical condition of a patient treated by him is properly excluded as privileged, where the exclusion extends only to disclosures while the professional relation existed.</p> <p>Beneficial Societies—-Action on Policy—Fraud in Obtaining Membership—False Application—Evidence—Sufficiency—Question for Jury. In an action upon a beneficiary certificate in a mutual society where the defense is that the policy was void on account of false statements as to the deceased member’s physical condition, and as to his rejection on a former application for life insurance, a nonsuit is properly refused where the only proof of fraud is evidence of contrary statements by the deceased upon a former application to a different lodge of the same order, which was rejected, and where the proof further shows that deceased understood and spoke English imperfectly, and did not himself write the former answers, and may have misapprehended their import.</p> <p>Same. It is also a question for the jury whether the defendant did not have knowledge, or means of knowledge, of the former answers, where it appears that both applications were forwarded by the local lodges to the same central authority, and were in its possession for a year and a half.</p> <p>Beneficial Societies—Membership—Expulsion—Rules of Society—Construction. In an action on a mutual benefit certificate defended on the ground that the member had been expelled for false statements in securing membership, the rules of the s