RAMASWAMI, J. : This Letters Patent Appeal is directed against the decision of our learned brother Basheer Ahmad Sayeed, J. in C. C. C. Appeal No. 54 of 1954, reversing the decree and judgment of the learned Principal City Civil Judge of Madras in O. S. No. 1568 of 1950.

2. The facts arising for consideration lie within a brief compass and have been established beyond doubt. The plaintiff Maheswari is the wife of the deceased Palanivel Nadar. Palanivel Nadar has a brother-in-law by name C. M. Thyagarajan. This Thyagarajan was the agent of the defendant insurance company, the All India General Insurance Company Limited. Palanival Nadar, as appears from the evidence, was a heavy drinker and afflicted with syphlis. On 2-1-1948 the deceased Palanivel Nadar took out a life assurance policy bearing No. 11096 for a sum of Rs. 5,000/-. Palanivel Nadar died on 13-6-1948 surviving him the plaintiff Maheswari and two minor children. The claim of Maheswari was disputed by the defendant company.

Their case was that the deceased Palanivel Nadar submitted his proposal for insurance on 1-12-1947 and made a personal statement on 3-12-1947. In answering the question in the personal statement he did not disclose two material particulars within his knowledge regarding his health and habits. In the statement Ex. B-3 the deceased in answer to the questions which are to be answered by him and filled up with the subscribing declaration that the foregoing answers were true in every particular and that he had not withheld any material information and that he thereby agreed that that declaration together with the proposal for assurance shall be the basis of the contract to be made between him and the All India General Insurance Company, Limited, to the question, "Do you take alcoholic liquor" he has answered that he took the same occasionally in company, and to the question "whether he had any affection of gonorrhoea, syphilis etc.", his answer was an emphatic "No"

On the death of Palanivel Nadar at the early age of 35, it was found that he had died on account of cirrhosis of the liver, ascites and syphilis. In the well-known Borlands American Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 22nd Edition, the first is defined as a disease of the liver, marked by progressive destruction of liver cells due to an inadequate diet in heavy drinkers. Ascites is explained as an accumulation of clear yellow fluid in the perritoneal cavity producing painless swelling of the abdomen due to inflammation or dropsical. In cases of hemorrhagic ascites, the fluid is mixed with blood. Syphilis is a well-known venereal disease for which salversan injection was the well-known specific.

The term "syphilis" is derived from the name of a shepherd infected with the disease in the poem "Fracastorius" (1530) in which the term first appears and according to some the word is derived from the Greek words together plus to love. It is a contagious venereal disease leading to structural and cutaneous lesions. Its primary local seat is a hard or true chancre. It results from contact, usually coitus. The several stages of syphilis are primary, secondary and tertiary. In course of time from its primary local seat chancre, it extends to the skin and to nearly all the tissues of the body, even to the bones. In fact the certificate of Dr. U. Krishna Rao (the present Speaker of the Madras Assembly) proved by him as D. W. 1 shows that Palanivel Nadar was being treated by him for syphilis in 1946 and 1947. Ex. B-9 is the medical attendance certificate issued by Dr. R. Narayanaswami and against column 5 of that certificate it is mentioned that the blood was positive for Syphilis infection.

In these circumstances, the defendant insurance company repudiated their liability on the ground that the deceased did not make mention in the personal statement made by him before the medical examiner of the ailments he suffered from prior to his application, and that he had received treatment both at Madras and Bangal