Goodes v. Order of United Commercial Travelers of America

• Citation: 156 S.W. 995,174 Mo.App. 330
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)
• Decision Date: 06 May 1913
• Parties: CLARA A. GOODES, Respondent, v. ORDER OF UNITED COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS OF AMERICA, Appellant

156 S.W. 995

174 Mo.App. 330

CLARA A. GOODES, Respondent, v. ORDER OF UNITED COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS OF AMERICA, Appellant

Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. Louis

May 6, 1913

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

April 7, 1913, Argued and Submitted

Appeal from St. Louis City Circuit Court.--Hon. J. Hugo Grimm Judge.

AFFIRMED.

STATEMENT.--John Thomas Goodes, the husband of respondent, a man forty-seven years of age, five feet, nine and a half inches in height weighing about 210 pounds, robust and apparently free from any disease or ailment, of simple habits, indulging in no excesses in eating or in the use of liquors, using the latter on rare occasions and then very sparingly, a light smoker until within a year and a half before his death, when he discontinued the use of tobacco altogether, was on a visit with his wife at the home of a friend. He and his wife retired to their room about midnight and at about eight o'clock in the morning Mr. Goodes, leaving his wife in bed, arose and went to the bathroom to shave and take his bath. He was absent from the bedroom about thirty minutes. Following the testimony of his wife, plaintiff here, it appears that Mr. Goodes, on returning to the bedroom from the bathroom was clad in his pajamas. There was a seat about two feet high, a stool in fact, with four legs, two of them resting on the floor of the bedroom, two on a rug. Mr. Goodes went to this seat, which was in front of a dressing table, sat down and prepared to dress, he and his wife joking, laughing and talking together, she lying in bed. He took off the trousers of his pajamas and reached for his underclothing, a union suit, hanging on the frame of a mirror, which was a few feet in front of this stool, and about four or five feet high. As we understand it, he reached for this garment in a stooping position, not standing up to his full height. Taking the suit off of the post or upright of the cheval, Goodes apparently backed toward the stool and was in the act of reseating himself on it, when it slipped from under him and he fell back on the floor, striking on his buttocks. Hearing him fall, his wife raised up, looked and asked if he was hurt. He said, "No," got up from the floor, came over to the bed, sat down on the side of it, threw off the jacket of his pajamas and reached around for his wife, who was back of him. She then saw that he was hurt. She arose, grabbing hold of him, when his head fell back on her shoulder and she laid him down on the bed and called for help. As she laid him down she saw blood oozing out of his right ear and nose. Some of the people in the house, hearing the cry of Mrs. Goodes, came into the room and when the gentleman of the house reached the body, as he testified, it showed no signs of life, and blood was exuding from one or the other of the ears and from the nose.

A physician, who was summoned and arrived immediately after the occurrence, testified that when he reached the room, he found Mr. Goodes lying on the bed, dead. He had been dead some minutes, was lying on his back, his clothing removed and blood was coming out of the ear and nostril. He recognized the case, as he testified, "as that of hemorrhage."

Some six or seven hours after the death, an autopsy was held on the body. There was testimony tending to show that the examination revealed a hemorrhage in the cavity of the skull around the brain, also hypertrophy of the heart on the right side, and a contracted condition of the kidney. It also showed some of the blood vessels to be atheromatous. There was profuse hemorrhage all through the cranium but more particularly in the ventricles of the lower section of the brain; a slight dilation of the right side of the heart; some change in the kidneys. The atheromatous condition was found in the vessels of the brain; in some of the arteries.

There was testimony to the effect that the hemorrhage from the ear and the nose had resulted from a fracture of the skull. While the surgeons who conducted the autopsy removed the brain, there was no testimony as to any examination of the interior of the skull. In point of fact it appears that the surgeons who conducted the autopsy, made no examination of the interior of the skull with the view of ascertaining whether there had been any fracture. That there had been a fracture and that this had caused the hemorrhage from the ear and nose, was opinion evidence, founded on the evidence as to the hemorrhage. It is proper to say that there was evidence on the part of defendant tending to show that there had been no hemorrhage, certainly that none was observed by those who saw the body immediately after death occurred, either proceeding from the ear or the nostril and, as these witnesses testified, there was no evidence present on the body or about the ears or nose that there had been any such discharge. Other than this hemorrhage, testified to positively by two or more witnesses, no sign of a wound or bruise appeared upon the exterior of the body. There was opinion evidence on the part of defendant, tending to show that the cause of death was apoplexy; that a fall such as that sustained by the deceased, in the absence of a diseased condition of the heart, kidneys and blood vessels in the brain, would not have caused death; that Mr. Goodes was suffering from nephritis, commonly known as Bright's Disease; that a person may have Bright's Disease and go for a considerable length of time before a proper diagnosis is made and the fact discovered and some of them die very suddenly from it without that condition having been previously ascertained; that judging from the condition disclosed at the autopsy, Mr. Goodes had been stricken with apoplexy and that had caused him to slip and fall, and that the fall had not caused or brought on the attack.

To the contrary, there was opinion evidence on the part of the physicians and surgeons examined on the part of plaintiff, in answer to the hypothetical question which was put to them, to the effect that Mr. Goodes died from a concussion and compression of the brain brought about by hemorrhage. The hypothetical question which was asked of these experts, after setting out a description of the subject as to age, weight and height, as to his habits, and that he had been in apparent perfect health, setting out the circumstances connected with the fall, continued: That after reaching the bed as he turns and reaches, his head falling backward, "he sinks down, loses consciousness and falls over, and in a few moments blood oozes from his nostrils, and from his right ear, and after the blood has begun to ooze from the nose and ear all breathing stops and the man is dead; that a post-mortem is held six hours later and on opening the body it appears that the deceased has a granular kidney, not granulated to a great extent, with a heart slightly dilated and the valves thereof not diseased; that he has some arteries in his brain that are atheromatous; that there is a profuse hemorrhage in the ventricles of the brain and extending throughout the brain (or, as modified, 'profuse hemorrhage around the brain'), on that state of facts, what in your opinion caused the death?" The answers of the surgeons called by plaintiff to whom this was propounded were to the effect that the subject of the question died from a concussion and compression of the brain, brought about by a hemorrhage, the hemorrhage proceeding from a fracture at the base of the skull, the fracture caused in the hypothetical case stated, by a fall upon his buttocks. On practically the same hypothetical question, surgeons called by defendant gave it as their opinion that the subject died of apoplexy and that this was not induced by the fall.

At the time of his death John Thomas Goodes was a member of the defendant society or corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Ohio, engaged in the business of life and accident insurance upon the mutual or co-operative plan, a corporation duly organized to transact business in the State of Missouri, his wife, the plaintiff, respondent here, being the beneficiary. The constitution or laws of the order provides that in case any member of the order shall sustain, during the continuance of his membership and while in good standing, "bodily injury effected through external, violent and accidental means, which alone shall occasion death immediately or within six months from the happening thereof, then the Order of United Commercial Travelers of America, within ninety days from the receipt of satisfactory proof of his death, shall pay to the person or persons entitled thereto, a sum not exceeding $ 5000," and also pay the sum of $ 1300 in weekly installments of twenty-five dollars each. It was provided, among other things, that the payments authorized to be made under this law should not cover or extend to any death, disability or loss resulting from various affections named, among others, fits and vertigo, "nor to any death, disability or loss, of which there shall be no external and visible mark on the body (the dead body not being such a mark except in case of drowning or asphyxiation), or happening directly or indirectly in consequence of disease or caused wholly or in part by bodily infirmities or disease, . . . nor to any case except where the injury is external, accidental, and the proximate and sole cause of the death." There are various other conditions in the constitution and laws of the order besides the above but as the case before us turns upon the construction of these portions, it is not necessary to set out any of the other exceptions.

It may be said in passing that while there was an effort made to show that Mr. Goodes was in default in the payment of some dues to his local lodge,...