Britt v. Travelers Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 25 July 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-2907,75-2907 |
| Parties | Mrs. Veda T. BRITT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Alben N. Hopkins, Gulfport, Miss., for defendant-appellant.
Harry R. Allen, Gulfport, Miss., Emmett R. Cox, John F. Janecky, Mobile, Ala., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Before WISDOM, CLARK and RONEY, Circuit Judges.
This is a diversity suit founded upon Mississippi law. The principal issue is whether a double indemnity provision in a life insurance policy issued by defendant Travelers Insurance Company to the deceased, Solon W. Britt, can properly be interpreted to cover the death of Mr. Britt on December 21, 1971 due to exposure. Travelers paid the face amount of the policy, $50,000, but refused to pay the additional $50,000 that was due only if the death was accidental as defined in the policy. Mrs. Veda T. Britt, wife of the deceased and the beneficiary under the policy, is the plaintiff. The jury found against Travelers and judgment was entered accordingly. Because the court erred in instructing the jury on the burden of proof, we reverse and remand.
The deceased, Solon W. Britt, was a loan broker in Picayune, Mississippi until he became incapable of operating his business due to physical and mental disabilities. His business was placed in receivership and Mr. Britt was committed from January 16 until May 31, 1971 to DePaul's Sanitorium in New Orleans. During this period Mr. Britt's doctors described him as confused, depressed, unable to orient himself in his surroundings and at times paranoid. Dr. James T. Henry, his attending psychiatrist, stated that Mr. Britt's condition was due to abuse of alcohol and drugs, primarily diet pills. However, while hospitalized at DePaul's Mr. Britt's condition improved. When released, his condition was described as recessive and improving. Dr. Henry believed Mr. Britt's forced abstinence from both drugs and alcohol was a prime reason for his partial recovery.
After being released from DePaul's, Mr. Britt apparently reverted to drinking heavily. He was committed on September 2, 1971 to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. The attending psychiatrist there, Dr. David Davidson, similarly diagnosed Mr. Britt's disabilities as stemming from alcohol and drugs but believed the damage to his brain to be permanent. Dr. Davidson believed Mr. Britt to be suffering from organic brain syndrome, a form of permanent brain damage that Dr. Davidson testified reveals itself in symptoms of anxiety, depression and lowered intelligence. Mr. Britt was given a wide range of achievement tests. His spelling, reading and mathematic comprehension had been reduced to that of a fourth grader. Some improvement occurred while at Whitfield but Mr. Britt remained depressed and anxious. When discharged on October 12, 1971, he was no longer considered psychotic. Dr. Davidson stated that Mr. Britt still actually needed constant supervision and the statement on his discharge records that he was released into his own custody merely reflected that Mr. Britt was no longer considered to be out of contact with reality.
Mrs. Britt testified that after her husband's release he functioned in a fairly normal manner. He was suffering from prostate trouble which apparently was diagnosed during his stay at Whitfield. On Friday, December 17, 1971, Mr. Britt was scheduled to have an appointment with Dr. Henry concerning this ailment. The evidence indicates that Mr. Britt may have arranged to ride into New Orleans with some friends to see Dr. Henry. Other evidence indicates he might have ridden a bus. Mrs. Britt testified that she does not know how he did get to New Orleans that day, though she does remember his getting out of bed in the early morning and that he did not take the family car. Dr. Henry stated that Mr. Britt did keep his appointment and complained of the prostate problem. Dr. Henry did not notice any serious mental deficiencies. Mr. Britt was oriented and did not appear confused, was logical and coherent in his conversation and was capable in Dr. Henry's view of functioning in society.
Mr. Britt's actions during the following weekend are unknown. Mrs. Britt called the police on Saturday morning, December 18, after her husband failed to return. On Monday, December 20, Mr. Britt was discovered lying in a pool of water behind a radio station in Pearl River, Louisiana, a town approximately fifteen miles south of the Britt home in Picayune. After he was sighted by station personnel, Mr. Britt remained in the ditch behind the radio station in the cold rainy weather for nearly two hours before an ambulance and police arrived. He was unable to walk and barely able to speak clearly enough to be understood. His skin had turned blue from the cold. A police investigation revealed no evidence of violence. An oily substance one witness likened to a preservative used on stored firearms covered his body. Although Mr. Britt was wearing his pants, his shirt was lying nearby. His pockets were empty. Mr. Britt was intermittently coherent and at times mentioned a wood box or stated that he had been carried to this site in a wooden box. He was moved to a charity hospital in New Orleans and then to the Oschner Foundation Hospital.
While hospitalized Mr. Britt suffered two cardiac arrests but on each occasion was revived. Dr. Paul Murison, who treated Mr. Britt after his arrival at Oschner, stated that exposure to the cold precipitated the heart attacks and had inflicted damage upon his kidneys. No appreciable amount of alcohol was found in his blood and Dr. Murison did not believe alcohol or drugs had contributed to the condition. Mr. Britt died on Tuesday, December 21. The causes of death listed on the death certificate and which were determined before the autopsy were exposure, acute renal failure and cardiac arrest.
An autopsy was conducted by Dr. George Leonard. Dr. Leonard testified that he identified two separate types of cause of death. The first he termed the immediate cause, i. e., the specific, operative reason a person dies at a particular moment. The second is the underlying or long term defect which causes or contributes to morbidity. In the case of Mr. Britt, the immediate causes according to Dr. Leonard's autopsy were congestion and swelling of the lungs, early stage pneumonia, death of part of the tissues of the kidney, infarction of the small intestine, congestion of the liver, kidney and spleen, and swelling of the brain. The underlying cause identified by Dr. Leonard was exposure. The autopsy also revealed that Mr. Britt had at least for several months and probably for several years been suffering from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease (hardening of the arteries), coronary arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries of the heart), coronary hypertrophy (an enlarged heart), arteriolar nephrosclerosis (hardening of the kidney), cirrhosis of the liver and other ailments. There was testimony that each could at an advanced stage have caused death independently of exposure. There was conflicting testimony as to whether any did contribute to Mr. Britt's death on December 21.
Three issues are raised on this appeal: (A) Was Mr. Britt's death from exposure due to "accidental injury" as defined under the insurance policy; (B) if the exposure constitutes accidental injury, was it the direct and independent cause of death without any contribution by other causes; and (C) were the trial court's instructions to the jury on these issues proper? Though we reverse and remand due to an error in one key instruction, all contentions presented are considered to facilitate the final resolution of issues that are likely to recur on retrial.
The policy issued by Travelers stated in part:
Benefits The Travelers Insurance Company will, subject to the terms and conditions of this Provision, pay to the Beneficiary designated in the basic contract the amount of Additional Indemnity shown in the SCHEDULE OF BENEFITS, upon receipt of due proof: (1) that the death of the Insured resulted from an accidental bodily injury which was the direct and independent cause of death; and (2) that such injury, except in instance of drowning or internal injury revealed by autopsy, produced a visible wound or contusion on the exterior of the body; and (3) that such death occurred within 90 days after the date of the accident; and (4) that the accident occurred before termination of this Provision as provided in the section entitled "Termination."
Exclusions No benefit under this Provision will be payable if death results from or is contributed to by:
1. Any bodily or mental infirmity or disease, even though the proximate or precipitating cause of death is accidental bodily injury.
Travelers first contends that Mr. Britt's death from exposure was not as a result of "accidental bodily injury," citing various precedents dealing with similar phrases in insurance contracts. However, the issue is foreclosed by the Mississippi Supreme Court's determination in Britt v. All American Assurance Co. of Louisiana, 333 So.2d 629 (Miss.1976) that accidental bodily injury does include death by exposure. The Mississippi court was there faced with an appeal by Mrs. Britt in her suit against another insurer of her husband. The accidental death benefits provision in the policy there at issue stated that an additional death benefit would accrue if the insured's death "resulted directly from bodily injury caused solely by external, violent, and accidental means and independently of all other causes . . . ." Id. at 631. The court concluded that death from exposure is an accidental death resulting from bodily injury caused by external and violent means. The present policy does not include the All American requirement that death result from external...
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