Kennedy v. Metropolitan Life Ins.

Citations

• 116 La. 66
• 40 So. 533
• 1906 La. LEXIS 468

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance—Payment oe Premium.</p> <p>Where, by its terms, a policy of life insurance is not to take effect unless the first premium is paid, such premium cannot be said to be past due because not paid upon the day upon which the policy bears date.</p> <p>2. Same—Overdue Payment.</p> <p>When the agent of a life insurance company is authorized, in his discretion, to receive payment of premiums within 30 days after they fall due, provided the insured is alive and in sound health when such payments are tendered, the fact that (those conditions existing) he receives payment of a single past-due premium, for which he gives the usual receipt of the company, containing the stipulation, “The acceptance by the company, at any time, of a premium past due, is to be taken as an act of grace by the company, and not as a precedent, nor as a waiver of any of the policy conditions,” cannot be considered as constituting a course of conduct whereby the insured was induced to believe that he might delay the payment of subsequent premiums. The company’s acceptance of a past-due premium, upon such conditions, and when the insured was alive and in good health, does not authorize the assumption that it will accept a future premium when overdue, and when the insured is in. bad health or dead.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>