29)
FIDELA SALES GONZAGA v. CROWN LIFE
FACTS:
Crown Life Insurance Co.’s whose home office is in Toronto Canada, issued to Ramon Gonzaga through its Manila branch office a 20-year endowment policy for P15K. Ramon paid in due time the agreed yearly premium of P591 for 3 consecutive years, and last payment was on September 6, 1941.
-In the face of the Japanese Military decrees, which found sanctions of international law, the failure of Life Crown or its Filipino employees to advice the insured Ramon of Life Crown’s new address did not work as forfeiture of the right to have premiums satisfied promptly. -While secret transactions between parties during the war might be binding, it was not obligatory on the insurer, and it was risky for its employees to send out notices to its widely scattered policy holders, with the postal service under the control and administration of the Japanese
On account of the outbreak of war, no premiums were paid after that date, although the policy continued in force up to June 12, 1943 under its automatic premium loan clause.
-Ramon had no right to demand that Life Crown maintain an office during the war, and the Life Crown was not obligated to do so
When Ramon died in 1945 from an accident, his widow plaintiff Fidela Sales Gonzaga and beneficiary attempted to collect the amount of the policy but was unsuccessful causing them to file a suit against Crown Life.
-Life Crown’s opening of an interim office partook the nature of the privilege to the policy holders to keep their policies operative rather than a duty to them under the contract
Crown Life argued that the policy had lapsed by non-payment of the stipulated premiums of the stipulated dates trial court ruled in favor of Crown Life
-Furthermore, the policy carried a clause providing for its reinstatement under certain conditions within 3 years from the date of lapse on application of the insured
Crown Life alleged that during the Japanese occupation, it had its offices open in Manila through its General Agents Hanson Orth and Stevenson, Inc.
Lapse of present policy: June 12, 1943 Opening of Crown Life in Manila (Wilson Building): May 1, 1945 Death of Ramon Gonzaga: June 27, 1945
Fidela asserts that it was Life Crown’s duty to notify her husband Ramon of its new postal address during the war, and that its failure to do so excused delinquency in the payment of premiums. ISSUE: WON plaintiff Fidela may
due to the war outbreak-
claim for benefits even after non-payment
- It is undoubted that Ramon knew all that (reopening and resuming of business) since he was an employee of the US Navy, and that the US Navy had an office in the same Wilson Building that he came to at least 2x a month for his salary
NO
RULING:
-According to evidence, Life Crown being an enemy corporation, its offices were housed at the Chaco building when the hostilities broke out, were ordered closed by Japanese Military authorities in January 1942, and officers of Hanson, Orth and Stevenson, Inc., Life Crown’s general agents, being American citizens citizens were entered -Japanese administration issued Instruction Instruction No. 71 by which enemy alien insurance companies were expressly prohibited from doing business -Before Instruction No. 71 was promulgated, Hanson Orth and Stevenson, had opened in the house of one of their Filipino employees, an office with skeleton force, all Filipinos, for the purpose of receiving premiums from their policy holders; notwithstanding notwithstanding the prohibition that office was not closed
Petition is DISMISSED. Winner: Crown Life Insurance
