Harding v. Pennsylvania Mut. Life Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 14 February 1953 |
| Citation | 95 A.2d 221,373 Pa. 270 |
| Parties | HARDING v. PENNSYLVANIA MUT. LIFE INS. CO. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied March 24, 1953.
Action by beneficiary on life policy. Insured was killed in railroad accident while enroute to camp for military training. The Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County at No. 907, January term, 1951, John J. Aponick, J., denied double indemnity, and beneficiary appealed. The Superior Court, Dithrich, J., No 3, February term, 1952, 171 Pa.Super. 236, 90 A.2d 589 reversed judgment, and insurer appealed. The Supreme Court Horace Stern, C. J., No. 311, January term, 1952, held that under life policy provision making double indemnity provision inapplicable if insured engaged in military service in time of war, insurer was liable although insured was killed in railroad accident while enroute to camp for military training.
Judgment affirmed.
The Korean conflict did not constitute " war" within life policy provision which made double indemnity provision inapplicable if insured engaged in military service in time of war, and, therefore, insured was liable although insured was killed in a railroad accident while en route to camp for military training.
M. Stuart Goldin, Abe J. Goldin and Goldin & Goldin, Philadelphia, for appellant.
William A. Valentine, Wilkes-Barre, for appellee.
Before STERN, C. J., and STEARNE, JONES, BELL, CHIDSEY and MUSMANNO, JJ.
This case is parallel with that of the Beley case, [ Beley v Pennsylvania Mutual Life Insurance Co.] 95 A.2d 202, in which an opinion has this day been handed down.
The insured here was Clyde P. Harding. The beneficiary of his policy at the time of his death was his minor wife, Catherine Harding, who by her guardian, brought the present action to recover on the policy, the face amount of which was $2,500 with a supplementary contract providing for double indemnity if death resulted solely through external, violent and accidental means. Harding was a member of the 28th Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, which was inducted into the federal service on September 5, 1950. He was killed on September 11, 1950, in a railroad accident while enroute to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, for military training.
Harding's policy, as far as its face amount was concerned, did not contain the clause which appeared in the Beley policy exempting the Insurance Company from liability if the insured engaged in military or naval service in time of war; accordingly, the Company, in the present case, admitted liability for the face amount of the policy. It resisted payment, however, of the additional accidental death benefit because, as to that, there were the same provisions as in the Beley policy, namely, that the Company should not be liable if the death of the insured resulted by reason of military, air or naval service in time of war, and that the right to the additional accidental death benefit should immediately terminate if the insured should at any time, voluntarily or involuntarily, engage in military, air or naval service in time of war. While, as the Company admitted, Harding's death did...
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