Lang v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 31 October 1940
• Docket Number: No. 7258.,7258.
• Citation: 115 F.2d 621
• Parties: LANG v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

115 F.2d 621 (1940)

LANG v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO.

No. 7258.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

October 31, 1940.

Nathaniel Rubinkam and Albert E. Hallett, Jr., both of Chicago, Ill., for appellant.

Arthur F. Gruenwald, of Chicago, Ill., for appellee.

Before SPARKS, MAJOR, and KERNER, Circuit Judges.

KERNER, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff, the beneficiary in an accident insurance policy on the life of William C. Lang, her brother, sued defendant, claiming that the insured's death was caused by accident. A jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, the District Court entered judgment thereon, and the defendant appealed.

The policy specifically provided that it did not cover death caused wholly or partly, directly or indirectly by disease or bodily infirmity, but did insure the deceased against the results of bodily injuries caused directly and independently of all other causes by violent and accidental means. The insured died on December 31, 1937, while the policy was in full force and effect. The defense is that the death of the insured was not covered by the provisions of the policy and that insured died from heart failure and not from injuries.

William C. Lang, a lieutenant of police, in good health and working steadily every day, was 46 years of age, 6 feet tall and weighed 220 pounds. During the afternoon of December 31, 1937, he made no complaints as to his health and that evening he prepared his own dinner. After he ate his dinner he went on special duty at the Edgewater Beach Hotel where he had charge of the police. While there, at about 9:00 o'clock and again at 9:30, in answer to an inquiry as to "how he was," he stated "Not so hot," patted himself in the region of his abdomen, or near his chest, and said: "Well, I am glad I have got my twenty years behind me. I can take a long rest now." This remark referred to his retirement from the police force. Later he spoke to a group of police officers, saying he had pains in his chest, was not feeling well, and that he had taken Alka-Seltzer, without relief. Between 10:00 and 11:00 P. M. he drank, at the hotel drug store, a glass of carbonated water with bicarbonate of soda.

After his return from the drug store at 11:40 P. M. he stated he would take a walk and started walking north in a hallway about 25 feet wide, having a marble flooring. In the center of this hallway were two heavy oval shaped rugs about half an inch in thickness. At that moment one Harvey, a bell-boy at the hotel, was walking to the south, toward Lang, and officer West was sitting about 15 feet from Lang at the time Lang commenced to walk to the north. The evidence then discloses that after Lang had walked about 15 feet he lurched and fell, face forward. Harvey testifying said: "Before I could reach him he hit the floor. He fell face forward. He fell on the rug. His feet were at the edge of the rug. He was bleeding."

Officer Frank A. West's testimony was to the effect that he actually saw Lang fall frontwards and that his face hit the floor. His feet were on the marble. His head was on the rug. He was bleeding profusely from the face and mouth. He was gasping and bleeding. Blood was coming out of his mouth and nose. The doctor came in about five minutes after he fell and within five minutes thereafter Lang was dead.

Jay Jones, resident manager of the Edgewater Beach Hotel on December 31, 1937, testified that the upper part of Lang's body was lying on the marble floor, face down.

It further appears that when Lang fell he suffered bruises causing a fracture and smashing of his nose, a nasal hemorrhage, biting of his tongue, and that after the fall he was gasping for breath.

Paul Schmitt, a physician admitted to practice medicine and surgery in Illinois since 1923 and Coroner's physician for Cook County, Illinois for 12 years, testified that he performed an autopsy on Lang and found abrasions of the left temporal and zygomatic region and on the nose. The nose was fractured. On opening the body the viscera, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and organs were found to be in a good healthy condition, except the lungs — there, in the alveoli, he found a small hemorrhage; he also found there had been a hemorrhage in the nasal passages with considerable loss of blood; that the brain was normal; and that there was nothing abnormal about the heart. He further testified that Lang had not come to his death from heart failure, heart disease.

In answer to a hypothetical question he stated that it was his opinion that Lang came to his death from nasal hemorrhage due to a fracture of the nose and that he found no...