Universal Life Ins. Co. v. Howlett

George Rose Smith, Justice.

This is a suit brought by the appellee as the beneficiary of a $1,000 life insurance policy issued by the appellant upon the life of Lloyd Pierce, who died on August 25, 1964. The defendant filed a general denial, but it failed to file proper responses to the plaintiff ’s .requests for admissions of fact. Upon this state of the record the trial court granted the plaintiff’s motion for a summary judgment.

The court was right. In an action upon an insurance policy a general denial merely puts the plaintiff to his proof; an affirmative defense, such as an exception in…