Goodier v. Mut. Life Ins. Co. of N.Y.

• Decision Date: 11 January 1924
• Docket Number: No. 23725.,23725.
• Citation: 158 Minn. 1,196 N.W. 662
• Parties: GOODIER v. MUTUAL LIFE INS. CO. OF NEW YORK.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

158 Minn. 1

196 N.W. 662

GOODIER

v.MUTUAL LIFE INS. CO. OF NEW YORK.

No. 23725.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Jan. 11, 1924.

Appeal from District Court, Ramsey County; John B. Sanborn, Judge.

Action by Lulu L. Goodier against the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. Verdict for plaintiff, and, from an order sustaining a motion in the alternative for judgment notwithstanding or for a new trial, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

The presumption of continued life of one who has disappeared from his home and the knowledge of his family, in the absence of proof to the contrary, continues for seven years. At the end of that time, and not until then, it ceases to operate, and the presumption of death takes its place. The latter presumption is to the effect only that the missing one is not then alive and does not prove death at any precise time within the seven-year period.

When, to sustain a recovery, death must be proven within four years from the disappearance, resort must be had to the circumstances of the case, the presumption arising after seven years' absence being of no avail.

G. disappeared November 14, 1914. He was a lawyer who had embezzled considerable sums from numerous clients. His criminality was about to be discovered to his family and the world. Immediately after his disappearance, ten indictments were returned against him. Theretofore he had borne a good reputation, had been reasonably prosperous, and his family relations were of the best. Shortly before his disappearance he had suffered a nervous breakdown complicated by disturbances of digestion. At the time of the trial G. had been absent more than seven years, but to sustain a recovery in this action it was necessary to prove death within four years after G. disappeared. Held, that there is no evidence to sustain a recovery, there being no showing that at the time of his disappearance, and from the illness which he was then suffering, G. was in imminent peril of death or that death was likely to follow soon in the ordinary course of the disease. Douglas, Kennedy & Kennedy, of St. Paul, for appellant.

Ambrose Tighe, of St. Paul (Frederick L. Allen, of New York City, of counsel), for respondent.

STONE, J.

Action by the beneficiary upon a policy insuring the life of her former husband, Wadsworth L. Goodier, wherein there was a verdict for plaintiff. Defendant moved in the alternative for judgment notwithstanding or for a new trial. The motion for judgment was granted and plaintiff appeals. This is a disappearance case and, at the outset, we desire to make acknowledgment and express our appreciation of the extent to which our labors have been lightened, and our assurance of having reached the proper result increased, by the exhaustive memorandum of the learned trial judge.

Mr. Goodier was a lawyer at Utica, N. Y. He and plaintiff had enjoyed a happy matrimonial companionship of some 29 years. They had been blessed by three children, all of whom are a credit to the parents. To negative all other considerations, it is sufficient to state that there was no reason for Goodier's disappearance outside of the very serious financial difficulties soon to be related.

Goodier's professional standing seems to have been good. The record may not so indicate, but it is not likely that he ever had much of a trial or commercial practice. He had more to do with the handling of trusts of one kind or another and possessed the confidence of a considerable clientele. Many of his clients were women. He operated quite extensively in Utica real estate. In 1914 he was 56 years of age, and until September of that year had enjoyed good health. He then suffered a nervous disturbance somewhat serious in character.

It continued into November when, for a short time, he was in a private sanitarium for treatment. There is a claim, but with slight evidence to support it, that he was suffering from ‘angina pectoris.’ Of that, more later. While in the sanitarium his letters to his wife were affectionate and cheerful in tone and indicate that the writer, whatever else he had to worry about, was not greatly concerned over the condition of his health. Neither in these letters nor elsewhere is there evidence that Goodier was of the morose or despondent type. Outside of the impending storm, brewed by his own unauthorized financial operations with the funds of others, there is nothing to indicate a reason for suicide, and no evidence of a tendency along that line.

It is probable that, if Goodier had not disappeared, he soon would have taken up a somewhat protracted residence in the penitentiary. Immediately after his disappearance, ten indictments were returned against him and the record indicates that other transactions might have been the basis for criminal accusation.

We need not go into detail, for it is sufficient to say that Goodier seems to have used the confidence of elderly men, and women, who because of inexperience were equally helpless, as a means of appropriating to himself the small properties upon which undoubtedly they depended for their support. It is not to be wondered at that he disappeared from his usual haunts and the sight and knowledge even of his devoted wife and affectionate children.

Just before his disappearance on November 14, 1914, a lawyer friend, knowing of the danger in which he was and desiring, if possible, to secure the indulgence of the creditors, made an appointment with Goodier for a meeting at a hotel in Syracuse. The situation was such that this friend, Mr. Ferris, registered Goodier under an assumed name. That appointment was kept by Goodier but he was not frank with Mr. Ferris, and disclosed only a minor part of his peculations.

The only baggage carried by Goodier to the sanitarium was a large Gladstone bag. Just before going to Syracuse for the appointment with Mr. Ferris, he sent his bathrobe home because ‘it was too heavy to carry.’ No one else expected him to leave the sanitarium at that time; but Goodier assuredly had made up his mind not to return. There is no evidence that any of the attendants expected him back, and he took with him all of the personal effects which he had carried from home. The Gladstone bag and its contents disappeared with the owner.

Goodier came to that conference from the sanitarium at Clifton Springs, a few miles west of Syracuse. So far as known, he has not been seen nor heard from since Mr. Ferris bade him good-bye after their interview. All evidence of his continued existence ceased with his departure from the hotel. Some inquiry was made, but it was not as thoroughgoing as modern facilities make possible. No effort was made through metropolitan police channels or other similar agencies to locate Goodier.

Mrs. Goodier in a woman of such sense of honor and high regard for family name that she waived all exemptions and surrendered all property of any value for the benefit of her husband's creditors. The utmost exertions on their behalf have left their claims unpaid to the extent of 94 per cent., a fact which shows how complete was the financial cataclysm that overwhelmed the missing man.

After the surrender of her home, Mrs. Goodier left Utica, and for a part of the time since has resided in California. There, in 1919, she procured a divorce upon the ground of her husband's desertion. Whatever she may have believed, her complaint in the divorce action was a solemn assertion that her husband was then living. Giving the circumstances of the divorce a no more weighty evidentiary character than that of an admission, it is, at least, more persuasive than the ordinary admission against interest.

The policy in suit expired by its terms December 12, 1918. It is necessary, therefore, in order to sustain a recovery for plaintiff, to find in the record some evidence that Goodier died between November 14, 1914, when he last was seen at Syracuse, and December 12, 1918, when the policy lapsed. The jury not only found for plaintiff, but, in answer to a special interrogatory, fixed the time of his death at or about the date of his disappearance.

[1][2][3] To hold that there was any proof of death at or about the time of disappearance, we would have to bring this case within the principle of those where the missing one, when last heard of, was in a position of peril. Davie v. Briggs, 97 U. S. 628, 24 L. Ed. 1086. The typical case is that of one who starts upon a sea voyage and neither he nor any one on board his ship nor the ship itself is ever heard from. In such a case, a finding of death is permissible after the lapse of the time within which the ship should have made port somewhere. Learned v. Corley, 43 Miss. 688, and other cases reviewed in note, 104 Am. St. Rep. 206.

All the evidence urged upon us to bring Goodier's disappearance within that rule is referable to the testimony of Dr. Miller, the family physician, who attended him just previous to his disappearance. The doctor mentions angina pectoris but seems to have been rather careful not to say that Goodier had anything other than ‘neuralgia or angina pains.’ This testimony was much limited on cross-examination when among other things he said:

‘I was called to the house * * * in the fall of 1914. He was suffering from gastro-intestinal disturbances. Gastro enteritis would be an inflammatory disease of the stomach and intestines. * * * A gastro-intestinal disturbance was what caused absorption from the intestines of poisonous materials, which being absorbed into the system gives blood pressure, which in his case caused angina. The stomach disturbance was the root of the evil at that time. That...