Heidenreich v. Metropolitan Life Insurance

Coeeins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal involves the liability of the defendant, appellee, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, on a life insurance policy. William C. Heidenreich signed an application on August 20, 1953, and on September 1, 1953, purchased from the defendant a mortgage term insurance policy insuring his life and naming the plaintiff, appellant, Audrey L. Heidenreich, as beneficiary. The principal amount payable under the policy decreased from year to year in proportion to the balance due on the mortgage debt against the Heidenreichs’ home.

The insured died on October 15, 1954, during the second policy year, and under the schedule of payments contained in the policy the sum of $9,600.00 was payable. The plaintiff claims that amount. All premiums on the policy were paid. The defendant refused to pay the $9,600.00 demanded and has tendered only the amount of the premiums paid under the policy because it contends that the insured in his application for the policy made false statements in bad faith regarding his health and prior medical attention, and also that these statements materially affected the risk, which it assumed when it issued that policy. ²⁸⁹ The plaintiff entered suit on the policy.

The case was submitted to the jury and a verdict returned for the plaintiff for the amount of the policy. A motion for a judgment N.O.V. was filed by the defendant, which motion was granted by the trial judge and a judgment entered for the plaintiff for the sum of $148.40, the amount of the premiums paid. From that judgment plaintiff appeals. Of course, in deciding whether to take a case from the jury as a matter of law, the trial judge should resolve all conflicts in the evidence in favor of the plaintiff and should assume the truth of all evidence and such inferences as may naturally and legitimately be deduced therefrom which tend to support the plaintiff’s right to recover.

If there is any evidence from which a rational conclusion may be drawn as opposed to the motion to take the case from the jury, that motion should not be granted. The weight of the evidence is for the consideration of the jury. Martin G. Imbach, Inc. v. Tate, 203 Md. 348, 356 , 100 A. 2d 808 . In the deceased’s application for the insurance policy he made the following statements, among others.

An appendectomy was performed at Sibley Hospital in 1944. He was in good health when the application was made. Ele had never been treated for or sought advice concerning any ailment or disease of the stomach or intestines. He had never been treated for or sought advice concerning ulcers.

He had never been in a hospital for observation, examination or treatment. He had never had a surgical operation except for the appendectomy in 1944 and the removal of a cartilage from his left knee in 1945. He had never been advised to modify or restrict his eating, drinking or living habits because of health conditions. He had never had an electrocardiogram or X-ray examination, or any laboratory examinations or tests.

He had not consulted any physician, healer, or other practitioner within the past five years for any reason not mentioned therein. To the contrary, Dr. Henry G. Hadley, who had been practicing medicine for thirty years in the general field of internal medicine, testified by deposition, taken in behalf of the defendant, that he first saw the deceased on May 18, 1950, ²⁹⁰ and took an X-ray and found a duodenal ulcer. On May 22, 1950, he took a gall bladder X-ray; on July 10th of that year he made a gastroscopio examination and found the ulcer; on July 11th he made a gastroanalysis; and X-rayed his stomach on December 25, 1950. The deceased was put on a diet and medicine was given him.

He is sure that he informed the deceased of what was found, although he had no proof of it. There was no reason why he should not have informed the patient. By so doing he gets better cooperation. In 1950 the deceased came to see him twenty-seven times from May 18th to December 31st.

In 1951 he came to see him six times between January 3rd and March 5th. He did not see him again until 1954 when he came on March 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 22, 26 and 29 and on April 1, 4 and 8. He thought these visits averaged an hour each. He did not see him again or hear from him until the night he died, October 15, 1954.

He had no record that he knew anything about the deceased using alcohol, and does not know whether he asked him to modify his drinking or living habits, although that is his custom. He was called to see the deceased on the date of his death between 10:30 P. M. and midnight and arrived twenty minutes later. At that time deceased had a cold clammy sweat, was in a state of shock, had very little pulse, was pale and had difficulty in breathing. About five minutes later he ceased to breathe and died.

From the other symptoms he observed he believed the deceased had a coronary attack and died of that. He remembered that he had treated the deceased and had seen him, but his records were locked up that night. Because he had cardiac symptoms and a cardiac death, he filled out the death certificate as having treated him for that, while as a matter of fact he had never treated him for cardiac disease, but only for digestive disturbances. He was not positive as to the cause of death but to the best of his opinion it was from the cardiac disease.

He did not attribute deceased’s death to anything due to his ulcer because of the abrupt onset and suddenness of the death. If he had died of a perforation or hemorrhage related to the ulcer he would not have died so rapidly. There was no evidence of bleeding. He thought at the time of his death that he had some pulmonary symptoms ²⁹¹ which led him to believe that it was a cardiac death rather than anything attributable to ulcers.

He could have had a cerebral hemorrhage but there were no symptoms of that. It could have been due to a ruptured aneurysm. He was not influenced in his opinion that the deceased had a cardiac death because he thought he had been treating him for cardiac disease. When he went to the home he did not know what he had been treating the deceased for.

Even if he had remembered that he had treated him for ulcers he would not have accounted for the death due to ulcers. He would still have considered that it was a cardiac death. On cross examination he testified that when the deceased originally came to him he tested his heart and blood pressure and found him to be in good general health except for the ulcer which was a nonsurgical thing. That type of ulcer is usually caused from an acid condition of the stomach.

Ulcers very commonly heal readily under proper care and diet. He prescribed three kinds of internal medicine. He repeated that he did not believe there was any connection between the ulcer and cause of death. When asked whether ulcers of that type would affect the deceased’s mortality and his normal life span, he replied that he had had patients on rare occasions die of hemorrhage, and sometimes, also on rare occasions, when operated on die as a result of the operation.

He did not believe that he had had any patient die of the ulcer itself or knew that the ulcer necessarily shortened any patient’s life. In his. opinion the ulcer which the deceased had did not affect his. normal span of life. When he took the initial X-ray examination of the deceased’s stomach he made the diagnosis as being-a duodenal ulcer. When he made the X-ray examination of the stomach on December 25, 1950, he did not see anything.

As of that date the ulcer, which had previously showed on the-X-ray, did not then show. Dr. Robert J. Bosworth testified by deposition, taken on behalf of the defendant, that the deceased came to see him first' on July 27, 1943, and his last office visit was on April 21, 1952. The patient visited him nine times in 1943 and fourteen times in 1944. The next visit was on June 10, 1946.

He saw him again in 1949 on January 6th, October 20th, and: ²⁹² November 17th. He did not see him again until January-18, 1952, and in that year he saw him ten times before April 21, 1952. He saw him first on account of weakness, loss of appetite and loss of strength. He did not digest his food very well and certain foods gave him digestive distress.

Not until November, 1944, was it suspected that he had an ulcer. On November 13, 1944, he was sent to Sibley Hospital for a diagnostic study. While there X-ray studies were made of his gall bladder and intestinal system. It was found that “he had a non-obstructing duodenal ulcer, number two', spastic colon, number three, para-appendiceal adhesions”.

As a result the appendectomy was done on November 17, 1944. After that he improved and his visits were for routine checkups and adjustment of medicine from time to time. He then got worse. On March 31, 1952, he was returned to Sibley Hospital for repeated X-rays and study of his gall bladder and upper gastro-intestinal system and he stayed there until April 5, 1952.

His second study was totally normal except for the existence of a non-obstructing duodenal ulcer with striking deformity of the cap. The deceased was informed of that diagnosis. He prescribed diet and medicine and a request for a change in habits in relation to beer and tobacco. On cross examination he stated that he had no record of the deceased having any heart condition.

His confinement at Sibley Hospital was to study his condition. No restriction was put on his physical activities. The ulcer was not a perforated one. It might have been possible to cure the ulcer by diet and restrictive use of tobacco and alcohol.

When asked whether ulcers necessarily shorten a person’s normal life span, he replied that in his experience people, when informed that they have an ulcer, get slightly neurotic, “prissy” and careful which might be in their favor as far as longevity is concerned. From his examination he had no reason to believe that deceased had any heart disturbances. Death from a perforated ulcer usually takes days or even weeks. He had never seen one occur within a space of hours.

He believed the deceased fully accepted his diagnosis of a duodenal ulcer. As far as he could determine the deceased paid very little attention to the instructions given him with respect to ²⁹³ smoking, drinking beer, and eating certain kinds of food which he asked him to keep away from. By diet and restriction of tobacco and alcohol many ulcers have disappeared. The plaintiff testified that the night her husband died he had eaten his supper and played a card game with her and their minor daughter.

After the game was over and while sitting on a sofa he complained of having pain and that it was going down his arm. The pain then completely left him and he took a shower. The plaintiff heard a thud and found him unconscious. She called for doctors and Dr. Hadley came twenty minutes later and thirty minutes after the illness had