Great Southern Life Ins. Co. v. Campbell

• Decision Date: 17 October 1927
• Docket Number: 26553
• Citation: 114 So. 262,148 Miss. 173
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: GREAT SOUTHERN LIFE INS. CO. v. CAMPBELL. [*]

114 So. 262

148 Miss. 173

GREAT SOUTHERN LIFE INS. CO. v. CAMPBELL. ^[*]

No. 26553

Supreme Court of Mississippi

October 17, 1927

(Division B.)

1. INSURANCE Death from act of insane person without cause held covered by double indemnity clause of insurance policy regardless of exemption of death resulting from "homicide."

Where an insurance policy, providing for double indemnity in case of accident, provides therein that it will not be liable if death results from homicide, where the killing is the act of an insane person without cause or justification, it is not within the exception, and the company is liable; the word "homicide" being used in the sense of intentional homicide.

2. TRIAL. If facts are undisputed and anly one reasonable inference can be drawn, peremptory instruction is proper.

A peremptory instruction is proper, where the facts are undisuted, and only one reasonable inference can be drawn from the facts disclosed.

3. INSURANCE, "Suicide" in insurance policy is capable of embracing self-destruction, result of sane or insane act.

Word "suicide" in insurance policies exempting insurer from liability for death from suicide is capable of embracing selfdestruction, result of sane or insane act.

Division B

APPEAL from circuit court of Lincoln county.

HON. E J. SIMMONS, Judge.

Action by Mrs. Clara Campbell against the Great Southern Life Insurance Company on a policy. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

T. Brady, Jr., for appellant.

I. The court erred in deciding that the death of Jesse Campbell was "purely accidental" and not the "result of homicide." Appellant contends under the terms of the policy upon which appellee sued that the killing of a human being by an insane person is homicide and cannot be within the terms of said policy "purely accidental."

It is self-evident that the death of the deceased was a "result of homicide" and was not "purely accidental." The term homicide is defined in 4 Words and Phrases, 1st Series, page 3339, as follows:

"Homicide is the killing of a human being. See Sanders v. State, 38 S.E. 841, 113 Ga. 267; also Code, section 4319; Daly v. Stoddard, 66 Ga. 145, 146. Homicide is the killing of any reasonable creature. State v. Reed, 9 N.C. 454, 455. Every killing by one man of another is homicide. State v. People, (Del.), 33 A. 257, 258, 9 Houst. 488." 2 Words and Phrases, 2nd Series, page 908; and cases cited; 29 C. J., page 1049.

It is evident from the language of the contract that it was the intention of the contracting parties that the appellee should not take advantage, in attempting to recover, of insanity. It expressly so stipulates as to suicide caused by insanity and it likewise expressly so stipulates against the appellee's taking advantage of insanity when it provides that there shall not be a recovery in the event of appellee's husband's death, as a "result of homicide."

The contracting parties expressly agreed and stipulated in the contract sued upon that liability should not arise against appellant in the event the death of the deceased was the "result of homicide."

The court below by its peremptory instruction has stricken from the contract "result of homicide." Likewise it has misconstrued the words "purely accidental means," as they appear in the contract.

Hugh V. Wall, for appellee.

We contend that the word homicide as used in this policy means intentional homicide. The word homicide as defined by the Mississippi statute and construed by our supreme court is too well understood to burden this court with any lengthy argument. Homicide as defined by our statute and as construed by our courts means an intentional killing of a human being. There can be no homicide, under the universal holding of our court, without an intention. And it is universally held that an insane person is not capable of forming an intention to kill. The parties to this contract, which is a Mississippi contract, entered into it with the knowledge of the common acceptance of the definition of homicide, as defined by Mississippi law, which is, as above stated, the intentional killing of a human being. Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. McWilliams, 112 So. 483; Jefferson Standard Life Ins. Co. v. Myers (1926) 284 S.W. 216 (Texas), decide this case in favor of the appellee. There is no difference, as we construe them, in the provisions of the clause in the Texas case, supra, and the case at bar.

In Ins. Co. v. Crandal, 120 U.S. 527, 30 L.Ed. 740, the court held: "When one inflicts injury, he acts. An act involves the exercise of the will; it signifies something done voluntarily. It necessarily implies intention." These statements are abundantly sustained by the textwriters and the decisions of our courts. 1 C. J., page 912; Chapman v. Life Ins. Co., 5 Fed. Case No. 2606; Randal v. Birmingham Ry. L. & P. Co., 168 Ala. 314, 53 So. 918; Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Terry, 82 U.S. (15 Wall.) 580, 21 L.Ed. 236; Eastabrook v. Union Ins. Co., 54 Me. 224, 227, 229 (89 Am. Dec. 743).

The court will see that by a decision of the highest court in the land that the word intentional is read into the policy, where it contains a suicide clause, and the insurance companies in order to avoid liability have now placed into their policies "suicide, whether sane or insane," and before they can defeat liability in the case at bar, they must put in their policies "homicide, whether caused by a sane or an insane person."

The case should be affirmed.

OPINION

ETHRIDGE, J.

The appellee filed a declaration in the circuit court on an insurance policy on the life of her husband, Jesse Campbell, who, it was alleged, met his death by accident, in that he was shot by one Ab Mitchell, an insane person, and died as a result thereof; that the appellant company had paid one thousand dollars on account of the death of the said Jesse Campbell, under the terms of the said policy, but refused to pay the additional one thousand dollars, for which the appellee made demand, under the terms of the policy. The insurance policy in question contained the following clause, which is relied upon to sustain the action:

"In event of death from accident the company agrees to increase the amount payable hereunder to two thousand dollars ($ 2,000), upon due proof that the death of the insured occurs during the premium paying period, while this policy is in full force and effect, before any benefit or value under any of the provisions in this policy other than loans shall have been claimed and allowed, or granted automatically, and before the attainment of age sixty by the insured, provided such death results solely from bodily injuries, caused directly, exclusively and independently of all other causes by external, violent and purely accidental means, and provided also that such death shall have ensued within ninety days from the date of such injuries and shall not be the result of homicide, nor be caused directly or indirectly by self-destruction while sane or insane, disease or illness of any kind, physical or mental infirmity, any violation of law by the insured, military or naval service of any kind in time of war or by engaging as a passenger or otherwise in submarine or aeronautic expeditions." (Underscoring supplied.)

The appellant filed the general issue to the declaration, and also pleaded that the appellee was not entitled to recover the additional one thousand dollars, under the terms of the policy, since by said policy it was provided that the additional one thousand dollars was not to be paid if the insured met his death as a result of homicide.

The plaintiff introduced proof upon the issue, which proof showed that the slayer of the deceased was insane at the time of the killing, and also introduced proof that there was no bad feeling between the parties prior to the shooting; that Mr. Campbell, the deceased, traded with Ab Mitchell, who ran a small store.

The company offered no proof, but contended that there was no liability, because the proof failed to show that there was no eyewitness to the killing, and failed, therefore, to show that there was an absence of aggression on the part of Campbell concerning the killing.

The proof for the plaintiff, we think, established beyond all reasonable doubt that Mitchell was insane at the time of the killing, and that no other reasonable conclusion could be drawn from the proven facts. We think also that the facts showed with clearness that there was no probable cause for the said killing, and that, consequently, the facts for the plaintiff, being uncontested, must be taken as true, and when so taken are sufficient to establish the fact that Mitchell was insane at the time of the killing, and that he shot the deceased, Campbell, without legal cause.

The question for decision then turns upon the construction of that part of the above clause, "and shall not be the result of homicide." It is contended by the appellant that the word "homicide," as used in this policy, means the killing of one person by another or through the agency of another, and that it is irrelevant whether the person committed the act was sane or insane; that the killing of a person by an insane person is homicide within the meaning of the intendment of the clause, regardless of his conditions or the circumstances.

It is contended that our statutes define "homicide" under many circumstances, including justifiable homicide and unintentional homicide, and, consequently, the intent or the condition of mind, or its ability to form an intent, is immaterial. This argument is plausible, and, if...