Grand Fraternity v. Keatley

Citations

• 27 Del. 308
• 4 Boyce 308
• 88 A. 553
• 1913 Del. LEXIS 50

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance—Application—False Answers—Warranty.</p> <p>At common law, false answers to questions in an application for life insurance vitiated the contract, without reference to the question of good faith or materiality; the answers being treated as literal warranties.</p> <p>2. Insurance—Life Policy—Construction—What Law Governs.</p> <p>Where a life insurance certificate provided that it should be construed according to the laws of Pennsylvania, where there was a statute (Act June 23, 1885 [P. L. 134] ) providing that no misrepresentation or untrue statement in an application made in good faith by the applicant shall effect a forfeiture or constitute a defense to the policy, unless the misrepresentation or untrue statement relates to a matter material to the risk, the determination of the question whether false answers in the application constituted a defense depended on the construction of such statute by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.</p> <p>3. Insurance—Application—False Answers—Effect—Defenses.</p> <p>Decedent applied for a certificate in defendant order insuring his life, and to obtain the same stated that he had not consulted a physician since childhood, when he had mumps. He also stated that he had never been subject to or had piles, bladder, gravel or kidney disease. The certificate was issued, and provided that it should be construed in accordance with the laws of Pennsylvania, and after decedent’s death, in an action on the certificate, a physician testified that he had operated on decedent for piles within six or seven years. Another testified that in June, 1908, nine months before decedent signed the application, he had decedent under treatment for four weeks for diabetes, and another testified that within six months prior to the application he had treated decedent for stomach trouble. Held, that such misstatements were material to the risk, within Act Pa. June 23, 1885 (P. L. 134), providing that misrepresentations shall not be a defense to a p