Shay v. Phœnix Accident & Sick Benefit Ass'n

Citations

• 28 Pa. Super. 527
• 1905 Pa. Super. LEXIS 238

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Health insurance — Forfeiture—Waiver.</p> <p>Refusal of an insurance company to pay a loss on a specified ground, estops it from asserting other grounds relieving it from liability of which it had full knowledge, where the insured had incurred expense and brought suit in the belief that the only objection was that stated.</p> <p>Waiver is essentially a matter of intention, and to establish it there must be some declaration or act, from which the insured might reasonably infer that the insurer did not mean to insist upon a right which because of a change of position induced thereby would be inequitable to enforce. Waiver may be inferred from acts of the insured which show either recognition or denial of liability exclusively on other grounds.</p> <p>Where a premium upon a policy of insurance is not paid until fourteen days after it becomes due, but the insurance company subsequently accepts payment of premiums for four successive months, the company cannot in an action on the policy maintain that the policy was forfeited by the delay in payment for fourteen days.</p>