Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/548

This page needs to be proofread.
524
48 NORTH DAKOTA REPORTS

the policy should not take effect until physically delivered. The contract of insurance was conditional upon payment of the premium and delivery to and receipt by the insured while in good health. The contract requirements did not necessarily demand as a condition precedent a manual delivery. Bowen v. Prudential Ins. Co. 178 Mich. 63, 144 N. W. 543, 51 L. Rk. A. (N. S.) 587, 590, 591. Unterharnscheidt v. Mo. State Life Ins. Co., 160 Iowa, 223, 138 N. W. 459. Phoenix Assurance Co. v. McAuthur, 116 Ala. 659, 221 South, 903, 67 Am. St. Rep. 154. See 25 Cyc. 718, 721; Thompson v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. 56 Ind. App. 502, 105 N. E. 780; N. Y. Life Ins. Co. v. Pike 51 Colo. 238, 117 Pac. 899. Upon the record, Bigham might be the agent of the insured, as well as the agent of the insurer. Amarillo Nat. Life Ins. Co. v. Brown (Tex. Civ. App.) 166 S. W. 658, 661; Young v. St. P. F. & M. Ins. Co., 68 S. C. 387, 47 S. E. 682. Joyce, ins. Vol. 1, § 661.

Good Health of Insured: Was the insured in good health when the policy was delivered to Bigham?

In Joyce on Insurance, Vol. 3, § 2004, it is stated:

“The term, ‘good health’ does not mean absolute perfection; but is comparative. The insured need not be entirely free from infirmity or from all the ills to which the flesh is heir. If he enjoys such health and strength as to justify the reasonable belief that he is free from derangement or organic functions, or free from symptons calculated to cause a reasonable apprehension of such derangement, and to ordinary observation and to outward appearance his health is reasonably such that he may with ordinary safety be insured and upon ordinary terms, the requirement of good health is satisfied. Slight troubles, temporary and light ill- nesses, infrequent and light attacks of sickness not of such a character as to produce bodily infirmity or serious impairment or derangement of vital organs, do not disprove the warranty of good health.”

In Goucher v. Trav. Men’s Ass'n. (C.C.) 20 Fed. 596, 598, the court states:

“The term ‘good health,’ as here used, does not import a perfect physical condition. It would not be reasonable to interpret it as meaning abso- lute exemption from all bodily infirmities, or from all tendencies to disease. It cannot mean that a man has not in him the seeds of some disorder. As has been well remarked by some of the law writers, ‘such an interpretation would exclude from the list of insurable lives a large proportion of mankind.’ ”