Atlas Life Insurance v. W. I. Southern, Inc.

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this case the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has certified to us questions of law concerning which it asks instructions for the proper decision of the cause pending in that court. Judicial Code, § 239; 28 U. S. C. § 346 .

The certificate states that on March 13, 1936, Atlas Life . Insurance Company, an Oklahoma corporation, plaintiff below, issued, on a single application, three policies of insurance on the life of one Southern, in amounts of $10,000, $15,000 and $25,000 respectively, each naming as beneficiary W. I. Southern, Inc., a Delaware corporation. All . of the policies contained an incontestable clause reading:

“This policy will be incontestable after two years from date of issue except for the nonpayment of premium and except as to provisions and conditions relating to disability benefits and those granting additional insurance specifically against death by accident, if any”,

and a clause relating to statements of the insured in his application as follows:

“All statements made by the Insured shall, in .the absence of fraud, be deemed representations and not warranties, and no such statement shall void this policy unless it be contained in the written application and a copy of the application is endorsed upon or attached to this policy when issued.”

The insured died February 23, 1938, and on March 7, 1938, the corporate beneficiary began suit against the insurance company in the Oklahoma state district court. On the following day the insurance company brought a suit in equity against the beneficiary in the federal district court for northern Oklahoma for cancellation of the

Under the Oklahoma practice the insurance company can set up the fraud as a defense to the action at law on the policies, or can interpose a cross-complaint in that action for cancellation of the policies. Farmers & Merchants Bank v. Hoyt, 29 Okla. 772 ; 120 P. 264 . The action on the policies in the state court is not removable by the insurance company, since it is not a non-resident of Oklahoma within the meaning of § 28 of the Judicial Code, 28 U. S. C. § 71 .

The questions certified are as follows:

“1. Is the remedy at law available in the state court by setting up the alleged fraud as a defense to the action on the policies, such an adequate remedy at law as will constitute a valid defense to the suit in equity for cancellation of the policies?

“2. In order to constitute a defense to a suit in equity to cancel a policy of life insurance on the ground of fraud, is it essential that the remedy at law be available to the complainant in an action at law pending in the federal court?

“3. Is "the principle that the adequate remedy at law which will preclude a federal court of equity from granting relief must be one available in the federal courts, applicable in the instant case where the relief sought is affirmative in form but defensive in character? ”

The insurance company in the circumstances disclosed by the' certificate is without remedy in a suit at law. The federal courts can render no judgment at law directing cancellation of a contract for fraud in its inception or preserving evidence of the fraud. These are forms of relief which a court of equity alone can give. But the basis of equitable relief is that the cancellation asked is necessary to protect the suitor from irreparable injury when there is manifest danger that his defense at law on the policy will be lost or prejudiced. Enelow v. New York Life Ins. Co., supra; Di Giovanni v. Camden Fire Insurance, Assn., supra; American Life Ins. Co. v. Stewart, supra.

Ordinarily when the defense of fraud may be interposed to an action at law on the policy and such an action is' imminent or pending, there is no occasion for equitable relief and the parties will be left to their rights as determined in the suit at law. In such a case the bill is dismissed without prejudice, not because there is want of jurisdiction in the federal court, but because the plaintiff has made .no case for equitable relief. Insurance Co. v. Bailey, 13 Wall. 616 ; Cable v. United States Life Ins. Co., 191 U. S. 288 ; Enelow v. New York Life Ins. Co., supra; Di Giovanni v. Camden Fire Insurance Assn., supra . And since the issue is not one of jurisdiction but of the need and propriety of equitable relief, the mere fact that the suit at law which is imminent can be brought only in the state court, or that it is pending there, is immaterial. Cable v. United States Life Ins. Co.,

In the light of what we have said it is evident that the certified questions cannot be properly answered, both because they are apparently framed without reference to the requirements for the maintenance of a suit in equity in the fedéral courts independently of § 267 of the Judicial Code and on the mistaken assumption that that section affords the only test of the insurance company’s right to proceed in a federal court of equity; and because the certificate does not exclude the possibility that there are facts, lurking in the record or within the range of judicial notice, which may have a material bearing on the insurance company’s need for equitable relief.

Since the insurance company has no remedy at law in the federal courts for the cancellation of the policies, § 267 interposes no obstacle to a suit in equity in a federal court. But it is requisite under § 24 (1) of the Judicial Code to the maintenance of suit there that facts should be presented entitling the company to equitable relief. In this aspect of the case the certified questions are incapable of categorical answer and the questions which

The suit at law in the state court in this case was brought shortly before the expiration of the two year period after which the incontestable clause, according to its terms, would come into operation. The fact that that period was about to expire was thought to be a sufficient ground for resort to equity in American Life Ins. Co. v. Stewart, supra, where no suit at law was pending or appeared to be imminent when the bill was filed. But we cannot say, at least without qualification, that a complainant similarly sustains the burden of showing threatened irreparable injury when a suit at law is pending in which he is free to set up as a defense the fraud on which he must rely in a cancellation suit in equity. Whether there are other special circumstances in the present case entitling the insurance company to equitable relief; whether there are peculiarities of local procedure which, in some circumstances, might impair the insurance company’s defense; whether such circumstances exist; or whether, under local law, a defense once interposed before the policy has become incontestable is a “contest” sufficient to preserve the insurer’s rights for all purposes, see New York Life Ins. Co. v. Hurt, 35 F. 2d 92 , 95; Harnischfeger Sales Corp. v. National Life Ins. Corp., 72 F. 2d 921 , 922; Killian v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 251 N. Y. 44 , 48; 166 N.

The certificate fáils to disclose whéther all the facts and circumstances pertinent to this issue have been .certified. This Court cannot be required by certificate to answer, and should not answer, questions which may be affected by unstated matter lurking in the record, or questions which admit of one answer under one set of circumstances and a different answer under another, neither of which is inconsistent with the certificate. See Triplett v. Lowell, 297 U. S. 638 , 648, 649.

The certificate is

Dismissed.