Palmanteer v. Foremost Life Ins. Co.

Opinion

PARAS, Acting P. J.

Plaintiff appeals from an adverse summaiy judgment in her suit for insurance policy benefits and damages.

On May 2, 1973, plaintiff and her husband ordered a Levitt mobile home from Lloyd Korth of El Kay Mobile Homes in Isleton, California. Korth and the Palmanteers flew to the factory in Southern California and placed the order, specifying certain optional equipment, colors, and finishes.

[343]

On June 2, 1973, the Palmanteers applied to the Bank of Alex Brown for a loan to finance the transaction. On June 4, plaintiff placed an order for “credit life insurance” (Ins. Code, § 779.2, subd. (1)), with CMH Insurance of Stockton, California, asking its representative, Mike Bruen, to place a binder on the order. Bruen promptly informed plaintiff that the loan was covered by defendant.

On June 6, Mr. Palmanteer, who had been suffering from a heart condition, entered Stanford Medical Center for certain tests regarding the extent of the medical problem and the need for surgery. He died on June 7, while undergoing the tests. Subsequently, on July 11, 1973, the loan was funded to plaintiff alone, based upon her individual credit.

Plaintiff concedes that no moneys had been advanced until after her husband’s death, and then only to her; she thus agrees that no credit transaction existed between the bank and Mr. Palmanteer to which the policy of credit life insurance would apply. (See

Klepper

v.

Standard Life Ins. Co.

(1976) 60 Cal.App.3d 470 [131 Cal.Rptr. 519].) But she asserts that “the sole issue at hand, is whether or not a credit transaction, within the scope of Insurance Code section 779.2, existed between [plaintiff] and her husband, as debtors, and Lloyd Korth, doing business as El Kay Mobile Homes, as creditor.”

Insurance Code section 779.2 provides in pertinent part:

“For the purpose of this article:

“(1) ‘Credit life insurance’ means insurance on the life of a debtor pursuant to or in connection with a specific loan or other credit transaction,. . .