Kelley

Upon his application dated March 15,. 1932, Government life insurance of $5,000' (policy, No. K-919427) was granted to-Thomas Joseph Kelley under § 310 of the-World War Veterans’ Act, 1924, as-amended, 38 U.S.C.A. § 512a. Appellee,. Kelley’s wife, was named as beneficiary. Kelley died on August 10, 1935. Appelleeclaimed insurance under the policy. The-Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs denied* the claim. Appellee brought an action on the claim against appellant, the United' States, under § 19 of the Act, as amended, 38 U.S.C.A. § 445 . Appellant defended on-the ground that the policy was obtained by-fraud. There was a jury trial. At the close of all the evidence, appellant moved for a directed verdict. The motion was-denied. The jury’s verdict was for appellee. Appellant moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The motion was; denied, and judgment was entered for ap *825 pellee. From that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

Appellant specifies as error the denial of its motion for a directed verdict and its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The ground of each motion was, in substance, that the evidence required a finding that the policy was obtained by…

concurring.

The appellant moves a modification of the opinion’s holding that the Veterans Administration had notice of the filing of a claim for compensation by the appellee. Appellant urges that it cannot be charged with such notice because of the administrative difficulty in examining its files in the compensation section to determine whether the applicant had correctly answered question 13(a).

There should be no such administrative difficulty if the files are properly kept. If they are not, such failure should not prejudice the veteran’s widow any more than it would prejudice a widow suing the Equitable Life Insurance Company with a vastly greater volume of life insurance and compensation business than that of the Veterans Administration. If properly indexed it would not take an hour’s search of the files to determine whether a compensation claim had been filed. One can imagine the short shrift we would give to a similar plea of the Equitable Life if the question had been whether the insured under a life policy had filed with that company a claim for compensation under an agreement with the company for compensation for total permanent disability.