Carroll v. Fidelity & Cas. Co. of New York

• Decision Date: 24 May 1905
• Citation: 137 F. 1012
• Parties: CARROLL et al. v. FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO. OF NEW YORK.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

137 F. 1012

CARROLL et al. v. FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO. OF NEW YORK.

United States Circuit Court, D. South Carolina.

May 24, 1905

H. J Haynsworth and J. C. Jeffries, for plaintiffs.

Sander & De Pass and Hall & Willis, for defendants.

BRAWLEY District Judge.

The policy of insurance sued on contains this clause:

'Against disability or death resulting directly and independently of all other causes, from bodily injuries sustained through external, violent and accidental means.'

The assured, Frederick G. Stacy, was the president of a National Bank at Gaffney, S.C. He was accused by one Porter, who was somewhat under the influence of liquor, of having taken unfair advantage of him in some business transaction, and other charges calculated to offend and irritate him were made. He started down the street with Porter for the purpose of making an investigation as to the truth of the charges and, meeting his partner, told him what Porter had said, and his partner then explained the transaction out of which the charge grew. Thereupon Stacy said to Porter, 'This shows that you are lying,' or words to that effect. Porter replied, 'You are a liar yourself,' or in like language. Thereupon Stacy struck two blows with his fist first with his right hand, and a blow with the left hand instantly following, which landed upon Porter's teeth, causing an abrasion. Neither of the parties were armed. In a few days blood poisoning set in, caused, according to the testimony of the medical witness, by microbes in Porter's mouth; the arm was amputated, and death ensued. Upon the trial the facts above briefly stated were proved, and the case was submitted to the jury with these instructions:

'(1) If the injury which resulted in the death of the assured was the natural and probable result of the blow voluntarily and intentionally delivered by the deceased, you will find for the defendant.

'(2) If the injury resulting in the death was something unforeseen, unexpected, and unusual, and was sustained through external, violent, and accidental means, your verdict should be for the plaintiff.

'(3) As there is no clause in this policy which expressly vitiates it when the injury was received while engaged in a breach of the peace, the court instructs the jury that the policy is not avoided unless the cause of the death was the obvious result of the breach of the peace by the assured, and naturally to be expected from the encounter.'

The jury found a verdict for the amount of the policy, $5,000, with interest, and this is a motion for a new trial.

The Oxford Dictionary defines an accident as 'anything that happens without foresight or expectation; an unusual event which proceeds from some unknown cause, or is an unusual effect of a known cause; a casualty; a contingency. ' Webster defines it as 'an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation. ' Worcester, as 'an unforeseen event.' The courts have held that where a man is killed by robbers it was death by accident, in the sense in which that word is used in any accident policy. So, too, a death from a blow by a man attempting to blackmail the assured has been held to fall within the terms of the policy. The opposite of accident is design, volition,...