DocketNumber: 23152
Citation Numbers: 48 Ga. App. 753
Judges: Jenkins, Stephens
Filed Date: 2/24/1934
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/12/2023
1. Although an insurance policy may contain a provision that “no agent has authority to change this policy or to waive any of its provisions,” and that “no change in the policy shall be valid unless approved by an executive officer of the company and such approval be indorsed hereon,” the provisions of the policy may be changed by the ■ conduct of the company, through its authorized agents, amounting to a waiver of the provisions of the policy, which, when accepted and acted upon by the insured, amount to a change of the contract. A provision of a policy may be altered by a course of dealings between the insurer, through its authorized agent, and the insured, which amounts to a waiver of a deviation from its terms.
2, Where an accident policy providing for a death benefit contains a provision that the monthly premiums required to keep the policy in force are payable at stated periods in advance, — as the first of each month,— but contains no provision as to the place for payment of the premiums, a waiver by the insurer as to the payment of premiums in advance as provided in the policy, and an agreement for the payment of the premiums not in strict accordance with the requirements of the policy, and for their payment at the home of the insured when called for by the insurer’s collecting agent, is established by a custom and course of dealings between the insurer and the insured by which the insurer sends to the home of the insured its collecting agent and collects and receives premiums which are past due, without insisting upon a forfeiture of the policy for non-payment of premiums as provided in the contract, and
3. A demal by an insurance company of liability under a life-insurance policy after it had received notice of the insured’s death, and a refusal by the company to furnish blanks upon which proofs of death should • be made as required by the policy, dispenses with a compliance with this provision of the policy.
4. Where the policy provides that no suit shall be brought for a recovery on the policy prior to the expiration of sixty days after proof of loss has been filed in accordance with the requirements of the policy, there can be no recovery by the beneficiary for damages and attorney’s fees as provided by law for bad faith on the part of the insurance company in failing to pay the loss unless the company had failed to pay the loss within sixty days after the right to bring suit upon the policy had accrued and a demand for payment made. Civil Code (1910), § 2549; Lester v. Piedmont & Arlington Life Ins. Co., 55 Ga. 475 (4) ; New Zealand, Fire Ins. Co. v. Brewer, 29 Ga. App. 773 (8) (116 S. E. 922) ;
5. Under the above rulings the petition, in the suit of the beneficiary under the policy against the insurer, set out a cause of action for the face value of the policy with interest, but not for damages and attorney’s fees for bad faith in the failure to pay the amount due under the policy. The court erred in sustaining the general demurrer to the petition.
Judgment reversed.