Commonwealth Life Ins. Co. v. Hall

• Decision Date: 13 December 1974
• Citation: 517 S.W.2d 488
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Shelba J. HALL, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 488

517 S.W.2d 488

COMMONWEALTH LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Shelba J. HALL, Appellee.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Dec. 13, 1974.

William D. Lambert, Ogden Robertson & Marshall, Louisville, William G. Reed, Carrollton, for appellant.

John G. Wright, Joseph F. Bamberger, Warsaw, for appellee.

PALMORE, Justice.

Commonwealth Life Insurance Company appeals from a judgment awarding $53,000 to the appellee, Shelba J. Hall, as the beneficiary of three insurance policies on the life of her husband, Elmer E. Hall.

Hall's death resulted from a shotgun wound in the heart. His life was insured under four policies issued by Commonwealth, as follows:

1. A policy of credit insurance covering the unpaid balance of a mortgage loan on his home. This policy was satisfied by payment of $12,495.00.

2. A $1,000 burial policy with $3,000 additional benefit payable in the event of death by accidental means. The $1,000 was paid and the $3,000 is a part of the amount for which suit was brought and a jury rendered its award of $53,000.

3. A $10,000 group policy with double indemnity for accidental death. The company paid $10,000 and the additional $10,000 is a part of the $53,000 awarded by the jury.

4. A $20,000 policy with double indemnity for accidental death and an exception of all liability other than a return of premiums paid in the event of death 'as a result of self-destruction, whether sane or insane, or any attempt thereat.' Mrs. Hall accepted a return of premiums in the amount of $90.26 paid under this policy but, after securing the advice of counsel, renounced the agreement and tendered the $90.26 back to the company. The verdict awarded the full amount of $40,000 on this policy, and on the issue of accord and satisfaction joined by the pleadings the trial court found as a fact that in accepting a return of the premiums Mrs. Hall was not capable of understanding the nature and effect of her actions.

The insured's death occurred on June 21, 1967. He was 36 years of age, married, and had one child, a daughter, Scarlett, about 6 years old. He had been employed as a Kentucky State Trooper for 14 years until January of 1967, when he resigned and accepted employment with the defendant company, Commonwealth Life Insurance Company, as an insurance salesman. He appeared to be well satisfied with his new occupation, was earning more money than he had received as a police officer, and was able to be home and spend more time with his family . They were out of debt except for the mortgage on their home in Warsaw, Kentucky. His wife, the appellee, worked for the local production credit association and her mother, who made her home with them, worked at a grocery store. On the morning of June 21, 1967, as was customary when her parents and grandmother were away at work, the little daughter was being looked after by Mrs. Viola Reffett, a next-door neighbor.

At some time around 11:00 A.M. on this particular day Mrs. Reffett, sitting on her porch with another neighbor, heard a shot but thought nothing of it until, perhaps half an hour later, Scarlett, who had gone into her own house, came out crying that her father had been shot. Help was summoned at once, and the sheriff, Milford Wheeler, and a physician, Dr. John Fielding, arrived very shortly. They opened the overhead door of the garage attached to the house and found Hall lying on his face in the middle of the garage, shot through the heart. His arms lay above (beyond) the head, with elbows bent. A .12-gauge pump-gun was lying on the floor under his right ankle. A half-unfolded 2-section newspaper was on the floor next to his right elbow. There were no materials or instruments present to suggest that he may have been cleaning or preparing to clean the gun.

The gun had been given to Hall by his wife on some previous Christmas. It has a 26-inch barrel with a polychoke and measures 31 1/2 inches from muzzle to trigger. It was introduced in evidence and appears upon cursory inspection to be in good mechanical condition. When examined by the sheriff on the scene it was found to contain one discharged shell. There was no ammunition in the magazine and no shells, either live or spent, could be found elsewhere on the premises. The deceased had been shot in the chest near the left nipple, the charge having ranged inward at an angle of 45 to 55 from perpendicular insofar as could be ascertained by probing to a depth of an inch to an inch and one-half. Both the shirt Hall was wearing and the skin around the wound showed powder burns. The estimated diameter of the wound was between one and 1 1/2 inches. The bore of a .12-gauge shotgun is .729 inches. However, the setting of the polychoke at the time in question was not shown, nor was the shirt introduced in evidence. It was estimated that Hall was five feet 11 inches tall and weighed about 175 pounds. It can be fairly inferred from the evidence that he could easily have held the muzzle of the gun at or near his chest and touched the trigger off with his finger.

June 21, 1967, fell on a Wednesday. The evidence did not disclose Hall's work schedule, if he had one, but the fact that Scarlett was left with her babysitter suggests at least that he was not expected to remain at home. As it happened, Mrs. Reffett noticed him leave and come back, using his automobile, several times during the morning. On one of his trips he stopped at a local farm supply store and bought 'a few' ('four, five or six') shotgun shells, which the sales clerk testified was not unusual for customers to do. The clerk did not recall the size of the shells, and there was nothing in the words exchanged during the transaction to indicate the purpose for which Hall intended to use them.

From time to time the deceased left affectionate little notes for his wife when he was to be away. One of these, written two days before his death, was as follows:

'Honey,

If I don't see you sometime this afternoon I'll be home for supper at 6:00. You won't have to fix to much. If you go to the Drug Store will you buy 3 or 4 more papers. Love you more than ever. Stop worry I'll make it.

Love

Elmer.'

Mrs. Hall was not asked for and did not volunteer any explanation with respect to the 'worry' to which this note made reference.

Hall had applied for the $20,000 double-indemnity policy on April 27, 1967, and it was issued on May 19, 1967, a month before his death. Though under other circumstances this might have had some significance with respect to the probability, vel non, of suicide, it must be remembered that he had just gone to work for this particular insurance company.

The witness Jack Parks was an assistant agency manager for Commonwealth and was Hall's supervisor. His relationship was such that he served as one of the pallbearers at the funeral, which was held on the Saturday following Hall's death on Wednesday, June 21. On Monday, June 26, he came to the house in order to secure and complete the proofs of death required under the various policies heretofore mentioned. Included among these proofs were statements by Dr. Fielding and the undertaker (who was also the county coroner) giving suicide as the cause of death and a statement signed by Mrs. Hall (but prepared by Parks) which likewise indicated suicide as the cause of death. A week later, on July 3, Parks returned with the settlement drafts, including the $90.26 check and the payments under the other policies mentioned above, and on this occasion Mrs. Hall purchased from him a $15,000 policy on her own life.

Mrs. Hall testified that she was not in a condition to conduct any business on June 26, 1967, and that she did not remember what she signed at that time. She was taking a tranquilizing drug prescribed by Dr. Fielding, and from her own and her mother's testimony there is ample support for the conclusion that she was quite distraught for a long period following the tragic death of her husband. Though much time and argument have been devoted in the briefs to the accord-and-satisfaction issue, we are not disposed to give it much space. It is utterly beyond cavil that this grieving widow did not have sufficient understanding of her rights and prospects under the insurance policies to question the judgment of one who had her trust and confidence but nonetheless, however honestly and in good faith, was acting for his company, which in this matter was her unrecognized adversary. Suffice it to say that it would not be conscionable to enforce an accord and satisfaction consummated under such circumstances.

Returning now from that brief digression, it appears that after Mrs. Hall received advice of counsel steps were taken to secure a coroner's inquest, which culminated in a verdict to the effect that the cause of death was accidental, and in due course an official death certificate was filed in which it was recited that the death resulted from a gunshot wound accidentally sustained while the deceased was cleaning or preparing to clean a shotgun.

The case went to trial on the widow's claim of death by accident and the insurance company's defense of death by suicide. There being no issue as to the fact of death, the widow was entitled to recover $20,000 under the policy of May 19, 1967, unless the jury were to find that the death resulted from suicide, and she was entitled to recover additional benefits of $20,000 under that policy, $10,000 under the group policy, and $3,000 under the burial policy if she succeeded in proving accidental death. She had the burden of proof on the issue of accidental death and the company had the burden on the issue of suicide. ¹ Cf. Kentucky Home Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Watts, 298 Ky. 471, 183 S.W.2d 499, 504 (1944); Prudential Ins. Co. v. Tuggle's Adm'r,254 Ky. 814, 72 S.W.2d 440, 443--444 (1934). Under a single instruction submitting the theory of accidental death the jury returned a verdict awarding the plaintiff $53,000.

During the course of the trial the court correctly and...