Berger v. Pacific Mut. Life Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 13 June 1898 |
| Citation | 88 F. 241 |
| Parties | BERGER et al. v. PACIFIC MUT. LIFE INS. CO. OF CALIFORNIA. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri |
New & Palmer and Karnes, Holmes & Krauthoff, for plaintiffs.
Trimble & Braley, for defendant.
The defendant has demurred to the petition herein, raising the principal question as to whether or not the defendant is liable on the policy of insurance sued upon for the death of Lyman A. Berger, caused by a gun or pistol short fired by one John Schlegel, alleged to have been at the time of firing 'a person of insane mind, and then and there without sufficient capacity to form and have an intention to inflict such injuries, or to understand the nature and quality of his act,' by which act a violent and accidental injury was inflicted upon said Lyman A. Berger occasioning his death. The policy in question is what is known as an 'accident policy.' Among its provisions is the following, in substance: This insurance does not cover, and the company will not be liable for, injury or death caused by, resulting from, or attributable, partially or wholly, to 'intentional injuries inflicted by the insured or any other person. ' The federal authorities are quite agreed that if the death is caused by the voluntary act of the assured, when his reasoning faculties were so far impaired that he was not able to understand the moral character, or the general nature, consequences, and effect of the act he was about to commit, such death is not 'intentional,' within the meaning of that term as employed in the policy, and the insurer is liable. This, for the very obvious reason that the term 'intentional' implies the exercise of the reasoning faculty, consciousness and volition; and, when the injury is thus inflicted by such a person, it is accidental, resulting from external, violent cause, within the meaning of an accident policy. Insurance Co. v. Terry, 15 Wall. 591; Insurance Co. v. Rodel, 95 U.S. 232; Insurance Co. v. Broughton, 109 U.S. 121, 3 Sup.Ct. 99; Insurance Co. v. Crandal, 120 U.S. 527, 7 Sup.Ct. 685. If this be so as to a self-inflicted injury by the insured, I am not able to perceive any escape from the proposition that the same rule should be applied to the injury inflicted by 'other person.' The word 'intentional' qualifies as much the act of the other person as it does the injury inflicted by the insured; and on the rule of...
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