Keatley v. Grand Fraternity

Citations

• 25 Del. 511
• 2 Boyce 511
• 82 A. 294
• 1911 Del. LEXIS 76

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence — Opinion Evidence — Hypothetical Questions.</p> <p>A hypothetical question, put to a physician testifying as an expert, need not contain a complete statement of the facts; but the omissions may be brought out on cross examination.</p> <p>2. Insurance — Fraternal Insurance — Contracts—What Law Governs.</p> <p>A benefit certificate, issued by a foreign corporation at its home office in a sister state, on an application providing that it was made to the corporation at its home office, is a contract of the sister state, governed by its laws.</p> <p>3. Insurance — Life Insurance — Warranties in Application.</p> <p>At common law, answers to questions in an application for life insurance were taken to be literal warranties of their truth, and, if false, a contract of insurance was vitiated, though the answers were made in good faith, regardless of the materiality of the questions or answers to the risk.</p> <p>4. Insurance — Life Insurance — Warranties in Application.</p> <p>Act Pa. June 23, 1885 (P. L. 134), providing that no untrue statements in an application for life insurance, made in good faith by the applicant, shall effect a forfeiture, unless the same relate to a matter material to the risk, excludes literal warranties, so far as they may be resorted to, to enforce immaterial matters; and an untrue statement must be of a material matter to constitute a defense, and whether a statement in an application made in good faith was true, and whether, if false, it prejudiced the risk, are for the jury.</p> <p>5. Trial — Deliberations of Jury.</p> <p>The jury are the judges of the weight of the testimony, and, where the evidence is conflicting, they must, if possible, reconcile it, and, when they cannot do so, they must reject that which is unworthy of credit; regard being given to the demeanor, fairness, character, intelligence, and interest of the witnesses.</p> <p>6. Insurance- — Fraternal Insurance — False Statements in Application.</p> <p>Where an appl