Travis v. Nederland Life Ins.

Citations

• 104 F. 486
• 43 C.C.A. 653
• 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 3938

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract — Effect of Modification of Proposal.</p> <p>The addition of a new term or condition to a proposal before it has been accepted is, in legal effect, a withdrawal of that proposal, and the submission of a new proposition, of which the additional term or condition is a part.</p> <p>2. Same — Acceptance of Former Proposition After Modification Nugatory.</p> <p>The acceptance of a former proposition, after the proposer has attached to it a new condition or term which is rejected, does not constitute a contract, because the minds of the parties never meet at the same time upon the same stipulations.</p> <p>3. Insurance — Written Application a Proposition — Effect of Modification before Acceptance.</p> <p>A written application for insurance is a proposition to contract, and not an agreement. Where, after the application was signed and mailed, but before it was accepted, the applicant attached a new term or condition, which the agents of the company declined to accede to, held, that the subsequent acceptance of the original proposition did not constitute a contract of insurance, because the minds of the parties never met at the same time upon the same stipulations.</p> <p>4. Witness — Effect of Interest — Competency to Testify to Transactions with Deceased Governed by Federal and not by State Statutes.</p> <p>Where congress has legislated upon the subject of the competency of witnesses in the courts of the United States, tlie statutes of tlie states and the decisions of their courts bare no application. Congress has declared the effect of the interest of a witness in th,e issue tried upon his competency, and specified the cases in which ho is incompetent to testify to a transaction with, or statement by, a deceased person, in section 858 of the Revised Statutes, and this legislation is controlling upon this subject in the courts of the United States, whatever the statutes of the states and the decisions of their courts upon the same subject may he.</p> <p>(Sy