29) FIDELA SALES GONZAGA v.

CROWN LIFE
FACTS:
Crown Life Insurance Co.’s whose home office is in Toronto Canada, issued
to Ramon Gonzaga through its Manila branch office a 20-year endowment
policy for P15K.
Ramon paid in due time the agreed yearly premium of P591 for 3
consecutive years, and last payment was on September 6, 1941.
On account of the outbreak of war, no premiums were paid after that date,
although the policy continued in force up to June 12, 1943 under its
automatic premium loan clause.
-In the face of the Japanese Military decrees, which found sanctions of
international law, the failure of Life Crown or its Filipino employees to advice
the insured Ramon of Life Crown’s new address did not work as forfeiture of
the right to have premiums satisfied promptly.
-While secret transactions between parties during the war might be binding, it
was not obligatory on the insurer, and it was risky for its employees to send
out notices to its widely scattered policy holders, with the postal service
under the control and administration of the Japanese
-Ramon had no right to demand that Life Crown maintain an office during the
war, and the Life Crown was not obligated to do so

When Ramon died in 1945 from an accident, his widow plaintiff Fidela Sales -Life Crown’s opening of an interim office partook the nature of the privilege
Gonzaga and beneficiary attempted to collect the amount of the policy but to the policy holders to keep their policies operative rather than a duty to
was unsuccessful causing them to file a suit against Crown Life. them under the contract

Crown Life argued that the policy had lapsed by non-payment of the -Furthermore, the policy carried a clause providing for its reinstatement under
stipulated premiums of the stipulated dates  trial court ruled in favor of certain conditions within 3 years from the date of lapse on application of the
Crown Life insured

Crown Life alleged that during the Japanese occupation, it had its offices Lapse of present policy: June 12, 1943
open in Manila through its General Agents Hanson Orth and Stevenson, Inc. Opening of Crown Life in Manila (Wilson Building): May 1, 1945
Death of Ramon Gonzaga: June 27, 1945
Fidela asserts that it was Life Crown’s duty to notify her husband Ramon of
its new postal address during the war, and that its failure to do so excused - It is undoubted that Ramon knew all that (reopening and resuming of
delinquency in the payment of premiums. business) since he was an employee of the US Navy, and that the US Navy
had an office in the same Wilson Building that he came to at least 2x a month
ISSUE: WON plaintiff Fidela may claim for benefits even after non-payment for his salary
due to the war outbreak- NO
Petition is DISMISSED.
RULING: Winner: Crown Life Insurance
-According to evidence, Life Crown being an enemy corporation, its offices
were housed at the Chaco building when the hostilities broke out, were
ordered closed by Japanese Military authorities in January 1942, and officers
of Hanson, Orth and Stevenson, Inc., Life Crown’s general agents, being
American citizens were entered

-Japanese administration issued Instruction No. 71 by which enemy alien

insurance companies were expressly prohibited from doing business

-Before Instruction No. 71 was promulgated, Hanson Orth and Stevenson,

had opened in the house of one of their Filipino employees, an office with
skeleton force, all Filipinos, for the purpose of receiving premiums from their
policy holders; notwithstanding the prohibition that office was not closed