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LOYAL AMERICAN LIFE INS. v. MATTIACE5/24/1996
tection guarantees under the Alabama Constitution of 1901 and under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Loyal American refers this Court to a series of cases holding that a plaintiff has no right to punitive damages; however, it cites no legal authority in support of its contention of unfair discrimination. " 'Where an appellant fails to cite any authority, we may affirm, for it is neither our duty nor function to perform all the legal research for an appellant.' " Henderson v. Alabama A & M University, 483 So.2d 392 (Ala. 1986) (quoting Gibson v. Nix, 460 So.2d 1346, 1347 (Ala.Civ.App. 1984). See Ala.R.App.P. 28(a). Moreover, we find no merit in the argument.
VII. Conclusion
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
SHORES, KENNEDY, COOK, and BUTTS, JJ., concur.
HOUSTON , J., concurs in part and concurs in the result in part.
ALMON J., concurs in the result.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX, J., dissent.
I concur except as to that portion of the opinion discussing the "Constitutionality of Allowing Bad Faith Claims" issue, and I concur in the result as to that issue.
In February 1990, Joseph F. Mattiace, who was then age 32, met with agents of Loyal American Life Insurance Company and applied for a life insurance policy with a face value of $32,200. As a part of the application process, one of the agents asked Joseph a set of questions listed on the application form and recorded his answers. One of the questions asked whether he had been arrested or convicted for DUI in the past five years, and Joseph said "no."
On March 2, 1990, Joseph was killed in an automobile accident. Blood and urine tests indicated that Joseph was legally intoxicated at the time of his death. Sue Mattiace, the mother of Joseph and the beneficiary under the policy, made a claim on Joseph's life insurance policy in August 1990. Loyal American responded by stating that because Joseph had died within two years of the policy's issue date, it would conduct an investigation to determine the truthfulness of his answers on the application. Loyal American discovered that Joseph had been convicted of DUI on June 14, 1989, approximately eight months before he applied for the insurance policy. Loyal American informed Sue Mattiace that it was rescinding Joseph's life insurance policy, based on his DUI conviction.
Section 27-14-7, Ala. Code 1975, allows an insurer to deny benefits if an insured has made misrepresentations that are material to the insurer's acceptance of the risk. Whether an applicant for life insurance has been convicted of DUI is certainly material to the risk accepted by the insurer. DUI convictions indicate a risk of premature death, which means a higher risk; for the higher risk, Loyal American would have charged a higher premium.
Loyal American had a standard procedure for "rating" a policy when the application disclosed a DUI conviction within 12 months of the date of the application and there were no extenuating circumstances. All of the underwriters testified that this was the standard procedure. The procedure was based upon the "driving criticisms" contained in the Hudson manual used by Ms. Dollarhide and Ms. Wilkerson, the Loyal American agents who sold the insurance policy to Joseph. If Joseph had disclosed his conviction for DUI, then Loyal American, in compliance with its standard procedure, regardless of whether there were written instructions, would have issued the policy only for a lesser amount or only at a higher premium. Because of the material misrepresentation, Loyal American was entitled to rescind the policy, and it had at le
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