RAGLAND, J.
This suit has for its basis a policy of insurance issued by defendant to one Morris Rich. According to certain provisions of the policy, the defendant obligated itself to pay to plaintiff, the beneficiary therein named, the sum of $30,000 in the event that the insured, while on a public conveyance, sustained bodily injury, through accidental means, which resulted directly, independently, and exclusively of all other causes in death. The policy contained the further provision that in case of the death of the insured from suicide the defendant would pay the beneficiary the sum of $1,000.
The petition, after alleging the execution of the policy and pleading the provisions thereof above referred to, except the stipulation as to suicide to which no reference was made, stated:
"That the death of the said Morris Rich occurred on or about the 9th day of June, 1919, and resulted solely from bodily injuries effected directly and independently of all other causes through external, violent and accidental means, to wit:
"The insured was engaged in riding upon a Creve Cœur Lake street car, returning from the lake to the city of St. Louis, at a point about 1% miles east of the lake, when and where he attempted to change his seat on the car and stepped into and on the side passageway of said car, and while being in and on the floor of said passageway of said car and in the act of going from one part of the car to another for that purpose, he accidentally fell from the car, which resulted in the following injuries, to wit:
"Badly crushed leg and severe nervous shock and loss of blood which caused the death of the insured on said 9th day of June, A. D. 1919."
The answer admitted the execution of the policy and that the defendant thereby undertook and agreed to pay the plaintiff the sum mentioned in case of death of the insured from bodily injuries sustained while said policy was in force, from external, violent, and accidental means, but denied all the other allegations of the petition, It further averred, however, that the death of the insured was due to suicide, and that said policy expressly provided that in such event the liability of the defendant should be limited to $1,000. In addition to the above, the falsity of certain declarations made by the insured in his application for the policy and in his applications for the annual renewal thereof, alleged to have been warranties, was pleaded as a defense.
With respect to the facts, the following from appellant's statement fairly outlines those about which there is no essential controversy:
"The insured, Morris Rich, was born January 14, 1850, and died June 9, 1919. In his earlier years he had been a mining engineer in the West; subsequently, a contractor in St. Louis; and for perhaps 10 or 12 years before his death he had done nothing. He had one child, the plaintiff here, married to one
Landau, with whom Rich resided in St. Louis. He was quite fond of this daughter and her child. To his friends and social acquaintances he exhibited nothing wrong—nothing abnormal. * * *
"The Creve Cœur electric line runs a distance of about 12 miles in St. Louis county from Delmar Garden to Creve Cœur Lake. Delmar Garden is its point of connection with the city cars; Creve Cœur Lake, its other terminus, is a kind of summer resort. It runs (a double track) over a private right of way, mostly fenced, over hill and down dale, through cuts, over embankments and bridges. In physical characteristics it is in no respect unlike any ordinary steam railroad traversing a similar country, and is not at all like unto the ordinary city or large town electric car line. The longest trestle on the line is one spanning both a creek and the tracks of the Rock Island Railroad, and situated about a mile and a half from the Creve Occur Lake terminus. This trestle is 300 feet or more in length and from 25 to 35 feet high. The western approach thereto is upon an embankment of 300 or 400 feet in length, which, at its junction with the trestle, has a height of about 25 feet. The iron supports of the trestle project above the track level some 3 or 4 feet and are visible to passengers on a car approaching from the west 600 or 700 feet away; the track being straight and level for that distance. There are some 60 stopping places between Delmar Garden and Creve Cœur, 7 of which are between the Rock Island trestle and Creve Cœur. Cars only stop at these places where there are either persons to get on or passengers to get off. At no point on the line will more than a minute elapse after a passenger on the car rings the bell before the car will reach and stop at the next stopping place, so frequent are they along the line. The running time from Delmar Garden to Creve Cœur was 35 minutes, with a 5-minute stay at each terminus.
"Car No. 810 of the Creve Cœur Lake line is an open `Moonlight' car. The seats run crosswise the car and are as long as the car is wide. The left or inner side of the car is inclosed with iron netting. There is a running board along the right-hand side of the car for passengers to step on in boarding the car, and handholds on the ends of the seats to assist the passenger in lifting himself from the running board to the floor level. Stanchions at every other seat support the roof and these also serve as handholds for the same purpose. Each seat is like every other seat. Each of them will seat six persons in entire comfort. The back of each seat is equipped with bells at convenient intervals, so that passengers may signal for stops. There are no accommodations of any kind on the car other than a place to sit down and ride. * * *
"At about 12 o'clock on the day of his death, June 9, 1919, Rich, the insured, boarded this car No. 810 at Delmar Garden and rode the 35-minute, 12-mile ride from Delmar Garden to Creve Cœur Lake. He sat in one of the rear seats. He did not get off the car during its 5-minute stay at the lake, but rode back again to Delmar Garden. Arriving there, he again remained on the car during the stop, and rode back to Creve Cœur. Here he again did not get off. During all of this time he sat toward the rear of the car. He had not moved at all unless at one of these stops he had moved from one of these long seats to another next to it, as to which the operators of the car were uncertain. When the car was leaving Creve Cœur on Rich's second round trip, he occupied the third or fourth seat from the rear, alone. There were about 20 passengers on the car, and its capacity was 60."
On his second return trip, and while the car on which he was riding was entering upon the Rock Island trestle, heretofore described, Rich fell, or jumped, from the car landing close to the railroad tracks some 25 or 30 feet below. He thereby sustained such injuries that he died within a few hours afterward.
Three eyewitnesses attempted to detail from the witness stand Rich's movements at and immediately prior to the time he left the car; Robert Hendricks, a high school boy 16 years of age; a Mrs. Youngblood, the wife of the conductor in charge of the car; and a negro man named Blakesly. Just preceding the happenings testified to by these witnesses, Rich was sitting on the end of the third seat from the rear, on the right-hand side of the car next to the running board; Mrs. Youngblood was on the seat immediately in front of him, sitting a little to his left and with her face turned toward her husband, who sat on her right and with whom she was engaged in conversation; Hendricks and a companion were sitting near the center of the seat immediately back of the one occupied by Rich; and Blakesly sat on the rear seat directly behind Rich.
Hendricks was offered as a witness by plaintiff. His version of what occurred is fully comprehended within the following excerpts from his testimony:
"Q. Now, this gentleman, Mr. Rich, who sat in the seat before you, I wish you would tell what you saw him do in the way of moving about, if anything? A. He got up and looked out along the car as if he was looking for the stop, and he set down for about a minute, and he got out on the running board and down about the space of one handhold would be, and he left loose with his right hand and faced away from the car, and then the left one, and the next I saw of him he was going through the air.
"Q. What did he have hold of with his hands when he first got out on the running board? A. The handhold.
"Q. Which way was he facing towards the car? A. Towards the car when he first got out there.
"Q. What was he doing with both his hands when he first got out there? A. He first got up and went out. He was holding on the handhold with both hands.
"Q. Would you come down here and show me about how he was holding to those two uprights? Suppose this is the upright, and suppose you are on the running board like he was? A. The car would be going in that direction, the seats run crossways, and the running board runs along here, and he got out here and held
on with both hands on the handholds, and he turned around holding to this handhold like this, and it looked like he was ready to get off the car at the stop, and the next time I saw him he was going through the air and his hands over his head and back to the car and about this far down (indicating to his waist). * * *
"Q. I understand you, he raised up out of his seat and held by this...
