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RICHARDSON v. MUTUAL SAV. LIFE INS. CO.6/21/1996
Betty Perkins Richardson appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of Mutual Savings Life Insurance Company (insurance company). This case is before this court pursuant to Ala. Code 1975, ยง 12-2-7(6).
We would note at the outset that in a case such as the present case, an appellate court must view the record in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, and it must resolve all reasonable doubts against the moving party. McClendon v. Mountain Top Indoor Flea Market, Inc., 601 So.2d 957 (Ala. 1992).
Our review of the record reveals the following pertinent facts: In October 1991 the insurance company issued insurance policies on the life of Richardson and on the life of Richardson's son, Rochester Perkins.
Richardson's sister, Geraldine Hall, was the individual who obtained these life insurance policies. Hall paid the premiums for these policies and was named as the beneficiary on both of these policies. Neither Richardson nor Perkins was present when the insurance company's agent completed the applications for these policies. The insurance company's agent left the applications with Hall in order for her to obtain the signatures of Richardson and Perkins.
The agent did not witness either Richardson or Perkins sign the applications, and he did not obtain the consent of either Richardson
or Perkins to issue the life insurance policies. Subsequently, the agent picked up the signed applications, and after the insurance company issued the policies, the agent delivered the policies to Hall. Neither Richardson nor Perkins was aware of the existence of these life insurance policies.
In December 1991 Charles Perkins, a brother of Richardson and Hall, shot and killed Rochester Perkins. Thereafter, the administratrix of Perkins's estate filed a wrongful death action against the insurance company and State Farm Life Insurance Company. In January 1994, during the course of her deposition in the wrongful death action, Hall admitted that she had forged both Richardson's and Perkins's names on the applications for the insurance policies. The insurance company sent Hall a letter, dated October 14, 1994, canceling the life insurance policy on Richardson's life.
On October 14, 1994, Richardson filed a complaint against the insurance company, alleging the tort of outrage. The complaint alleged the following, in pertinent part:
"3. In a deposition taken by counsel for [the insurance company] on January 28, 1994, the named beneficiary, [Hall], admitted that she had forged [Richardson's] name to the application for insurance on [Richardson's] life. Despite this knowledge, [the insurance company] continued to leave the policy on the life of [Richardson], naming [Hall], the admitted forger, as beneficiary, and continued to collect premiums from [Hall] on the subject policy through the date of the filing of this complaint.
"4. The conduct of [the insurance company], in allowing a policy to remain in existence on the life of [Richardson] after learning that [Richardson's] signature was forged by [Hall], and after learning that the son of [Richardson] was murdered by [Hall's] brother, is so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and must be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized society. [The insurance company], for the sake of profit only, has, by its outrageous conduct, placed the life of [Richardson] in jeopardy and, in essence, has placed a bounty on [Richardson's] head.
"5. As a consequence of the outrageous misconduct of [the insurance company, Richardson] has suffered severe emotional distress; she has been placed in
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