Insurance – Recovery – Delay of Insurance Company in Rejecting Application for Insurance

Plaintiff, designated as beneficiary by deceased life insurance applicant, sued defendant life insurance company in assumpsit. Deceased, a combat pilot in the Korean War, had applied for one of defendant’s policies, passed the medical examination, and made several premium payments on the policy. After the applicant was killed in combat defendant refused payment, contending that it had never accepted the risk but that it had responded to the application with a counter offer containing an aviation waiver. Because of ·the applicant’s frequent change of address and his early death this proposal had never been communicated to him. On appeal from the lower court’s directed verdict for defendant, held, judgment vacated and case remanded for new trial. The evidence was sufficient to send to the jury the question whether a contract of insurance had resulted prior to applicant’s death. Wadsworth v. New York Life Insurance Company, 349 Mich. 240, 84 N.W. (2d) 513 (1957).