Kennedy v. Mutual Life Insurance

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The inquiry in this case, appealed from a judgment on a directed verdict for the defendant life insurance company, is whether the evidence is legally sufficient to admit of an inference that the company’s assistant claim agent had authority to bind it by a promise to pay a policy for $1,000 which had been barred by the statute of limitations. The policy was issued on April 27th, 1872, and the death of the insured, John J. Kennedy, occurred on February 11th, 1873. Fifty-seven years later the policy was found in a drawer of a bookcase formerly belonging to Mr. Kennedy but now in the possession of the plaintiff, who1 is the widow of his son, and wTho has brought tlds suit in the capacity of administratrix de bonis non of the deceased policyholder.

It was testified by the plaintiff that a week or two after finding the policy she called, with her daughter, at the home ³⁴² office of the defendant company in Baltimore; that “they went in the entrance of the insurance building,” where “an official of some kind” looked at the policy and told her to “take it up' to the claim department to' Mr. Parr.” Her testimony then proceeded, so far as necessary to be quoted, as follows: “I went in the office and asked for Mr. Parr and Mr. Parr wasn’t there, and the young lady said, 'Mr. Patten there, he will take care of you.’ Q. Did she tell you who he was? A. She just said Mr. Patten — is the assistant. * * * Q. And then a gentleman came forward. Did he say he was Mr. Patten? A. Yes; he was sitting at his desk when I went in.

J gave him the paper * * * just laid it down, and lie took the name and number, and went back and got the card and came out and read it and said— * * * he read off the card ''According to the Providentia, of which he was a member at this time, this policy was lapsed in February, 1873.’ Q. In when? A. March, 1873. Q. Are you positive? A. Yes, sir.

I said, 'The man died in February of 1873.’ He said, 'Oh that is different.’ He said 'Then you were within the four weeks grace period according to the rules of the insurance company’; he said, [The company will be glad to pay this policy, it would be a big ad. for them, when you get the proof' of death, which you know we have to have that — the proof of death, the doctor’s certificate and the cause of death.’ ” Mr. Patten said to her that “the next day he woud get another man and go down in the vault and get the old records out of the policy; that one man could not go down there alone; they had to take two', and he would go- down the next day and get them and that she should come down there and hear what was on the records * '* She “went down later and told them she had not had an opportunity to look up the records Mr. Patten wanted — the proofs he wanted, because she was employed and that the occasion of this second visit to the office of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of Baltimore may have been two weeks after the first visit. * * * On the second occasion she saw Mr. Patten, whom she had seen on her first visit.” She told him that she had not had ³⁴³ “time to get the necessary proofs that he wanted, or to hunt them up ; and he said, there is plenty of time, there is no hurry, just take your time and when you get them come in again. He did not at that time say anything about any other records.” About two weeks later the plaintiff again visited the insurance company’s office. “This was the third time,” she said, and, after being informed by Mr. Patten that the matter was “out of his hands” and had been “transferred to Mr. Parr,” she had a conversation with the latter which she thus narrated: “He said that it was lapsed in March, but could have lapsed sooner and they did not get a record of it in time to make a note of it before March. I said, Well, that wTas very strange, I thought insurance companies were more accurate than that. Then he said how could I prove that this was the same John Kennedy, that there were hundreds of Kennedys — John Kennedys.

I said, there may be now but there wasn’t then. He said that their attorney said I had no claim whatever. Q. That was his answer to you ? A. Yes.

He said, ‘I have no proof — he had no proof that it wTas paid up to date.’ I said, ‘You haven’t any proof it wasn’t paid up to date; you have proof it was lapsed four weeks after he died.’ ” The daughter of the plaintiff, who accompanied her when she first visited the insurance company’s office, corroborated the mother’s testimony as to the details of the interview with Mr. Patten on that occasion. A letter to the insurance company from the plaintiff’s attorney, asking that he be supplied with forms for proof of death under the policy, was answered by the company’s vice-president, who stated in his letter: “We presume it to be a policy issued by the old Providentia. It seems rather late to make a death claim after almost sixty years have elapsed since the supposed death. As this company recognizes no liability thereon, we cannot submit any forms for proof of claim.” One of the provisions of the policy vras that, “if a contract be made by the assured with the Providentia Society ³⁴⁴ of which he is a member, as to weekly payment is not regularly and promptly met, in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of the