Starr v. Mutual Life Insurance

Citations

• 41 Wash. 228
• 83 P. 116

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Receipt and Application — Conflict—Construction. Where an application for insurance upon a printed form conflicts with the statements of a written receipt, the latter controls.</p> <p>Life Insurance — Binding Receipt — Death Prior to Issuance .of Policy. Where an insurance solicitor receives the first payment on a life insurance policy and issues a written receipt reciting that the policy (to he thereafter issued) is to take effect from the date of the receipt, there was a present contract of insurance to he superseded hy the policy or terminated hy rejection of the application, although the application upon a printed form recited that the insurance was not to take effect until the policy was accepted; hence the company would be liable where the application was accepted in ignorance of an intervening accident which resulted in death before the delivery of the policy.</p> <p>Insurance — Agents—Authority. Want of authority of a soliciting agent, who received the first premium on a life insurance policy, to issue a binding receipt constituting a present contract of insurance, must be brought home to the insured in order to relieve the insurance company from liability, the general rules of agency not applying.</p>