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SYLLABUS
DECISION
OZAETA, J : p
Separate Opinions
YULO, C.J., concurring:
I can find no quarrel with the legal considerations and conclusions set
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forth in the original decision promulgated by this Court. As general rules of
law they find full support not only in reason and in logic, but also in simple
human sense of justice. More so, modern and complicated practices
attendant to the ever growing trade in life insurance demand the strictest
accountability by insurance companies for acts of their authorized agents. In
this way only may the State afford reasonable protection to the unwary
public from abuse by such organizations as may be found to be of
questionable moral standards.
But a careful consideration of the evidentiary facts as set forth in the
decision of the Court of Appeals leads me to conclude that the ends of
justice would not be served by the application to the present case of the
rules so enunciated. Rather, to serve the ends of justice the case of the
respondents should be removed from the protection of such rules.
The subject of the insurance policies under consideration is the life of
the assured. It is contended by his beneficiaries that they took these policies
on the basis of a life expectancy of a person gravely stricken with
tuberculosis. They have consistently made protestations that they had so
informed the agents of the insurance company. But the policies were issued
upon the life of the assured, as a perfectly normal and healthy person. The
error is vital and goes to the very existence of the contract itself. Who is
responsible for the error?
The direct cause, of course, is the false recitals in the application for
insurance. While it is true that it was the agents of the insurance company
who filled out such application, yet it was the assured who, by signing the
application in blank, made it possible for the said agents to procure the
issuance of the policies on the basis of false information, in order to suit their
own purposes. Upon the admitted facts, I am of the opinion that in justice
and in equity, the responsibility for the falsifications made by the insurance
agents in the preparation of the insurance application should be laid at the
door of the assured and his beneficiaries.
I vote with the majority in granting the motion for reconsideration and
in reversing the decision under review.