Janet A. Sullivan v. John Hancock Mutual

The facts that an original application for a subsequently issued life insurance policy was signed by the applicant in blank and that, although he supplied truthful information to the insurance company's examining physician, the physician wrote false answers to medical questions in the application would not bar an action on the policy on the asserted ground that no contract of insurance had existed between the applicant and the insurance company. [652, 654-655] An actual intent to deceive on the part of an applicant for a life insurance policy within G. L. c. 175, § 186, would not be shown as a matter of law by the mere fact that the application contained false answers to medical questions as to matters within the applicant's knowledge. [655-656]