Misrepresentation In Life Insurance Application

Dallas life insurance lawyers want to know this case. It is from the San Antonio Court of Appeals and styled, Garcia v. John Hancock Variable Life Insurance Company.
This is an appeal of a summary judgment granted in favor of John Hancock.
In support of its motion for summary judgment, John Hancock submitted the following: in February and March of 1986, Garcia’s husband, Alfredo R. Garcia, applied for and was issued a life insurance policy with John Hancock. In two policy applications, Mr. Garcia was asked a series of questions regarding his health history. The first application, dated February 25, 1986, was signed by Mr. Garcia and an agent of the Insurance Company. On that application, Mr. Garcia represented that he had never been treated for or had any known indication of diabetes. He also represented that he (1) had not consulted a physician or been examined or treated at a hospital or other medical facility within the last five years; (2) was not being treated by a physician or taking any prescription drug; and (3) did not have a personal physician.
The second application, dated March 10, 1986, was signed by Mr. Garcia and a medical examiner pursuant to a physical examination initiated by John Hancock. On this second application, Mr. Garcia again represented that he had never been treated for or had any indication of diabetes. He also responded, once again, that he was not under treatment of a doctor or taking any prescription drug. Further, he stated that he had never been treated for or had any indication of dizziness and that he did not smoke cigarettes. Mr. Garcia executed the applications stating “the foregoing statements and answers” are “to the best of my knowledge and belief, complete, true and correctly recorded.”
In February of 1987, approximately a year after the life insurance policy was issued, Mr. Garcia died of myocardial infarction, commonly referred to as a “heart attack.” During the course of this litigation, Mrs. Garcia candidly admitted that Mr. Garcia had been diagnosed as having diabetes in 1970 and had either injected insulin or taken pills daily until 1980, when the disease went into remission. Further, it is undisputed that Mr. Garcia was experiencing dizziness around the time he made representations to the contrary. In fact, he had visited a doctor on February 18, 1986 and was taking prescription medicine for diabetes at the time he executed the March 10, 1986 application. During the visit with the doctor, Mr. Garcia also reported that he smoked fourteen cigarettes a day.
Applying the summary judgment standards discussed above to the facts of this case, the court had to determine whether John Hancock proved each element of its misrepresentation defense as a matter of law. Under Texas law, there are five elements an insurance carrier must plead and prove in order to establish a misrepresentation defense:
(1) the making of a representation;
(2) the falsity of the representation;
(3) reliance on the misrepresentation by the insurer;
(4) the intent to deceive on the part of the insured in making the misrepresentation; and (5) the materiality of the misrepresentation.
This Court was of the opinion that it may not presume an intent to deceive from the fact that Mr. Diggs, with a long history of heart ailments, made false statements on his application for insurance. Since there is no evidence regarding Mr. Diggs’ intent to deceive, the summary judgment was improperly granted.