Hodnett v. Aetna Life Ins. Co.

• Citation: 87 S.E. 813,17 Ga.App. 538
• Decision Date: 27 January 1916
• Docket Number: 6576,6577.
• Parties: HODNETT v. ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO. ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO. v. HODNETT.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

87 S.E. 813

17 Ga.App. 538

HODNETT v. ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO.

ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO. v. HODNETT.

Nos. 6576, 6577.

Court of Appeals of Georgia

January 27, 1916

Syllabus by the Court.

There being no conflict in the evidence as to the physical facts connected with the death of the insured, and these facts with all reasonable deductions and inferences therefrom overcoming the presumptions of law in this case that the deceased did not kill himself, or that his death was accidental, and demanding a finding that the deceased came to his death by his own hand and intentionally, and the life insurance contracts sued upon containing the special provision that they should be void in the event of the death of the insured by his own intentional act, sane or insane within one year from the date of their issue, and it affirmatively appearing that these contracts were issued within one year of the death of the insured, the trial judge did not err in directing a verdict for the defendant company.

Error from City Court of Atlanta; H. M. Reid, Judge.

Action by H. H. Hodnett, executrix, against the Ætna Life Insurance Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error and defendant files cross-bill of exceptions. Judgment on main bill affirmed, and cross-bill dismissed.

Simmons & Simmons, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Smith, Hammond & Smith, of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

BROYLES J.

The deceased was found, clothed only in a nightgown, on February 17, 1913, between the hours of 4:30 and 5 a. m., in his front hall, dying from a bullet wound. He was breathing, but unconscious, and was bleeding profusely from the mouth and nose, and also from the top of the head. He was lying stretched upon the floor, and a pistol was found about five or six feet from his body. One chamber of this pistol had been discharged, and a lead bullet, half flattened, was found on the floor near the body. The only wound upon his body except a slight powder burn on one of his hands, was through the roof of his mouth. The hole, the point of entrance, as testified to by all the experts examined, was inside the mouth, and was large enough to insert therein a man's index-finger, which the expert witnesses declared showed that the wound must have been inflicted at very close range. There were no powder marks or wounds of any kind upon his lips or teeth. There was a hole in the top of his head, just to the left of the center of the...