Titlow v. Reliance Life Insurance

Citations

• 246 Pa. 503
• 92 A. 747
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 544

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Life insurance — Policies—Construction—Default in payment of premiums — Decision by company — Recovery of premiums previously paid — Absence of forfeiture clause.</p> <p>1. A contract of life insurance providing for the payment of a definite sum to the insured at a definite period, or to his legal representatives at his decease before the end of the period, in consideration of certain annual premiums to be paid by the insured during the continuance of the policy, without qualifying provision of any kind whatever, is not a contract of insurance for one year in consideration of an advance payment with the right of the insured to continue it from year to year upon payment of the stipulated premium, but a contract indivisible and continuous and the consequence of a default -in payment of one of the premiums is to be determined by common law principles parties themselves having failed to provide otherwise.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover premiums previously paid in a policy of life insurance by the terms of which the insurance company agreed in consideration of the payment in advance of a yearly premium and the annual payment of a like sum on or before a given date in each year during the life of the insured or until premiums for twenty full years should have been paid, to pay a principal sum to the insured’s estate, or to himself if he should be living, subject to certain printed conditions and stipulations, not, however, including any forfeiture for the nonpayment of premiums, where it appeared that after paying several premiums the insured became in default beyond the period of grace, that a short time later he tendered ,to the company his check for the amount of premium due with interest, which the company returned and declared the policy void, without any offer to refund the premiums previously paid, a verdict for the plaintiff for the amount of the premiums paid was sustained.</p> <p>3. In such case the’plaintiff’s default in the payment of premium