From our private database of 33,800+ case briefs...
New York Life Insurance Co. v. Johnson
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
923 F.2d 279 (1991)
Facts
Kirk Johnson purchased a life insurance policy from New York Life Insurance Co. (plaintiff). Kirk’s father, Lawrence Johnson (defendant), was named as the beneficiary. Kirk filled out an application during the purchasing process and stated that he had never smoked cigarettes and had not smoked in the last 12 months. However, those answers were not true. Kirk had been smoking for 13 years and was smoking approximately 10 cigarettes per day in the month when he applied for the coverage. Kirk died a couple of years later, for a reason unrelated to smoking. However, the insurance company investigated and discovered the misrepresentation. The insurance company then denied Lawrence’s claim and filed a declaratory-judgment lawsuit. The insurance company was seeking an order declaring that the life insurance policy was void due to the misrepresentations. The trial court determined that Kirk’s application did contain misrepresentations, but the remedy should be limited to the higher premium that would have been charged by the insurance company. The insurance company appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Debevoise, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 604,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 33,800 briefs, keyed to 984 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
