American National Life Ins. Co. v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 26 November 1928
• Docket Number: 27423
• Citation: 152 Miss. 811,118 So. 898
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: AMERICAN NATIONAL LIFE INS. CO. v. JOHNSON

118 So. 898

152 Miss. 811

AMERICAN NATIONAL LIFE INS. CO. v. JOHNSON

No. 27423

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 26, 1928

Division A

INSURANCE. Provision of accident policy limiting liability for injuries while engaged in rioting or fighting held unambiguous and effectual to limit liability.

Provision of accident insurance policy limiting liability in case of injuries to insured while engaged in rioting, fighting, or strikes, whether or not insured was engaged therein, held not ambiguous and effectual to limit liability of insurer, where death of insured resulted from injury in gunshot duel between others.

HON. W H. POTTE, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Hinds county, First district, HON. W H. POTTER, Judge.

Action by Richard Johnson against the American National Life Insurance Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Reversed and remanded.

Everett & Forman, for appellant.

Geo. L. Teat and Howie, Howie & Latham, for appellee.

OPINION

MCGOWEN, J.

Suit was brought against the American National Life Insurance Company, appellant here, by the appellee, Richard Johnson, as beneficiary under an accident insurance policy in that company taken out by Lucy Johnson, the wife of appellee, who was alleged to have died from the effect of gunshot wounds inflicted by appellee. There was a verdict and judgment in the lower court for five hundred dollars, the face value of the policy, and the insurance company prosecutes an appeal here.

In the lower court, the question, under the policy, was whether the insured came to her death accidentally or designedly at the hands of the beneficiary in the said insurance policy.

The appellee, Richard Johnson, testified that he shot his wife while he was engaged in a gunshot duel with Felix Thurston; that Thurston fired the first shot, which he returned, and, in the exchange of shots between the duelists, his wife received the wound from which she died.

There was testimony supporting the theory of the insurance company that Johnson shot his wife by deliberate design, or by reckless intent to kill any person present, there being three in number.

In the court below defendant, appellant here, pleaded paragraph W of the policy, entitled "Partial Coverage," which reads as follows:

"In the event of any claim for either death or disability resulting from accident or injuries arising under this policy due...