Lewis v. Liberty Industrial Life Ins. Co.

"All things that are not forbidden by law, may legally become the subject of, or the motive for contracts." Rev.Civ. Code, art. 1764. An insurance contract is no different from any other contract and represents the agreement between the insured and the insurer. There is no reason why an insurance company should not stipulate that its liability be dependent upon the insured being confined to his house, or to his bed, or to a hospital, or any other lawful condition. The theory on which the courts have held that there may be recovery on an insurance contract, in which liability is dependent upon continuous confinement to the insured's house, when, as a matter of fact, he is not so confined, is that it was the intention of the parties to the contract to express, by the words "continuous confinement to the house," a degree of disability or incapacity. By a parity of reasoning, necessary confinement to bed should be held to mean another degree of incapacity or disability, which, in the instant case, is superlative, for no greater incapacity can be imagined than insanity. In neither case does the insured meet the conditions imposed by the literal terms of the policy. Therefore, where the liberal rule of construction has been applied to policies of this kind, and the cases are numerous, the basis of the holding must have been that the fair intent of the policy contract was to insure against disability, the degrees of which were expressed by the words concerning confinement to house or bed. It is my understanding that this was expressly held in Newton v. National Life Ins. Co., 161 La. 357, 108 So. 769.

I therefore respectfully dissent.