Love v. New York Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 05 May 1933
• Docket Number: No. 6577.,6577.
• Parties: LOVE v. NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

64 F.2d 829 (1933)

LOVE v. NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO.

No. 6577.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 5, 1933.

Gerald Fitzgerald and W. W. Venable, both of Clarksdale, Miss., and Walter Sillers, of Rosedale, Miss., for appellant.

Ernest Kellner, Jr., of Greenville, Miss, for appellee.

Before BRYAN, SIBLEY, and HUTCHESON, Circuit Judges.

BRYAN, Circuit Judge.

The New York Life Insurance Company in 1926 issued a policy of insurance on the life of Robert C. Love, by which it agreed to pay $5,000 upon proof of death of the insured, and an additional $5,000, called "double indemnity," upon proof that death resulted from bodily injury effected through "external, violent and accidental means.' The insured died on May 23, 1931, of a gun shot wound. His widow, the beneficiary named in the policy, acknowledging payment of $5,000, the face of the policy, but alleging that the death of the insured was accidental, brought this action to collect the double indemnity. The insurance company denied this allegation, and pleaded affirmatively that the insured committed suicide. At the close of the evidence the trial court directed a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff appeals on the sole ground that it was error to take the case away from the jury.

At the time of his death Love was 48 years of age, happily married, with two children, one 6 and the other 8 years old. He was carrying all told $53,000 in life insurance, $22,000 of which had been in force for more than two years. The remaining $31,000 was less than a year old, the evidence being silent as to whether the policies were subject to the usual suicide clause. It does not appear what loans, if any, were outstanding against the policies. In addition to the life insurance Love had an estate estimated by his wife at $5,000, consisting mainly of a mortgage for $1,200, and shares of the stock of two corporations. His annual income aside from his salary did not exceed $1,000. He was buying a plantation which was rented for $3,500 a year, but after his death it was surrendered in satisfaction of the balance due on the purchase price. He had been employed for 15 years by the Delta Farms Company, and was then its bookeeper and cashier at Deeson, Miss., at a salary of $250 per month. On the day before his death, Johnston, president of the Delta Company, had an interview with him and called for an explanation of his failure to charge himself on the books with $218, the irregularity having been discovered by auditors in the course of an audit which had not then been completed. His explanation that his account was somewhat "balled up," accompanied by an offer to make settlement, was not satisfactory to Johnston, who thereupon discharged him and told him that a man to take his place would be sent to Deeson on the following morning. According to Johnston's testimony Love asked to be continued in his position until fall, stating that he was financially embarrassed, had only $25 or $30 in cash, and if he were discharged at once and his salary discontinued it would be impossible for him to furnish supplies to the tenants on his plantation. This request was denied, but Johnston agreed to pay him an extra month's salary, in return for which he was to assist the auditors in completing the examination of his accounts. There was no threat of prosecution, but Love was told that he would be expected to make good any shortage disclosed upon completion of the audit. Love told his wife that night about his interview with Johnston. She testified that he did not tell her he had already been discharged, but said that it was possible Johnston would ask for his resignation, although he still believed he would be able to "straighten out everything"; and that he had arranged with the owner of the property on which he had a mortgage for a place to live if it should become necessary to move because of his loss of position. She further testified that he slept well that night as usual, was cheerful and appeared to be perfectly normal in every way the next morning when he left home for his office. On that morning, May 23d, Love reached his office about 8 o'clock. The day was Saturday. Within a few minutes Edwards, an overseer, called with his pay roll, and Love, after checking it over, told him to tell overseer Conger to come to the office with another pay roll. Conger came within 15 or 20 minutes, and when he arrived found Love's dead body in a vault connecting with the office. The vault was about 8 feet square and had a cement floor. As one entered it from the office there was a shelf on the left, and a wall safe in the opposite corner. The doors to the vault and to the safe were both open. Love was lying on his back, his feet toward the safe. An old-style pump gun, 50 inches in length, in the chamber of which was a freshly discharged shell, was lying diagonally across his body with butt to the left. In his left hand was a pencil and in his right hand a piece of window-screen molding, 27 inches long with three nails in it; about two-thirds of the molding being below the hand and extending toward the feet. There were powder burns above the left shoulder, and a gunshot wound on the left side of the head just behind the prominence of the cheek bone. The wound ranged upward and slightly inward. Shot had entered the ceiling above the body and in front of the safe. The ceiling was about 7 feet high and also showed signs of powder burns. The gun which was found lying across the body did not have a rebounding hammer, and, according to the testimony of the witnesses who experimented with it, would, if the hammer were let down, explode a shell when dropped butt down onto a cement floor from a height of 12 inches. Love was 5 feet and 9 inches tall. At some time not disclosed by the evidence a splinter, extending up from the toe of the stock about 3½ inches and 3/8 of an inch thick at the lower end, had been split off. That splinter was not found in the vault, although three witnesses made a careful examination. Plaintiff's brother, who examined the gun two days after Love's death, gave it as his opinion that the piece of the stock had been freshly broken off, and testified that he made a search for it, but was told by Love's successor that the vault had been swept out and that everything swept out had been burned. Love did not own the gun, but held it as security for a small loan which he had advanced to a tenant; the length of time he had held it under pledge was not shown. The tenant was not called as a witness; nor was it otherwise shown whether the splinter had been split off before or after the gun was pledged as security. In the vault at the time of Love's death were also three pistols, one of which was loaded, a loaded rifle, and an automatic shot gun. The last named weapon was lying at Love's feet; the evidence fails to disclose whether it was loaded or not.

The burden was on the plaintiff to prove that the death of the insured resulted solely from external, violent, and accidental means. That the means of death were external and violent was conclusively shown by the character of the injury. The evidence is entirely circumstantial, but the circumstances all exclude any theory that death resulted from the act of another than the insured, and so it was either suicidal or accidental. Suicide will not be presumed from the mere fact of violent death, and the reasonable inference of accident therefore arose upon proof of death without any additional evidence. Missouri State Life Ins. Co. v. Roper (C. C. A.) 44 F. (2d) 847. But the presumption against suicide was overcome if the preponderance of the evidence was consistent with the theory of suicide and at the same time was inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of death by accident. New York Life Ins. Co. v. Bradshaw (C. C. A.) 2 F.(2d) 457; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Weaver (C. C. A.) 8 F.(2d) 680; Planters' Bank v. New York Life Ins. Co. (C. C. A.) 11 F.(2d) 602; Davis v. Reliance Life Ins. Co. (C. C. A.) 12 F.(2d) 248; Burkett v. New York Life Ins. Co. (C. C. A.) 56 F.(2d) 105. In Ætna Life Ins. Co. v. Tooley, 16 F.(2d) 243, we deliberately disapproved expressions of this court in Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Love, 111 F. 773, and National Union v. Fitzpatrick, 133 F. 694, to the effect that in order to overcome the theory of accidental death suicide must be shown "beyond dispute" to be an "absolute certainty." Those expressions were taken from Pythias Knights v. Beck, 181 U. S. 49, 21 S. Ct. 532, 45 L. Ed. 741, in which, however, the holding was merely that the evidence was as consistent with accident as it was with suicide. We are still of opinion that the language this court used in the Love and Fitzpatrick Cases is too broad and does not state the true rule of evidence applicable to a case like this. Home Benefit Association v. Sargent, 142 U. S. 691, 12 S. Ct. 332, 35 L. Ed. 1160, is not in point as the issue there was whether the deceased shot himself intentionally or accidentally while he was suffering from a severe headache. The Supreme Court was careful to point out that the bill of exceptions did not purport to contain all the evidence in the case.

Here the evidence is consistent with the view that Love was actuated by a motive to take his own life, although proof of such motive is not required. He had lost the position he had held for many years under circumstances which might make it more than ordinarily difficult to secure other employment; was in financial difficulties, unable to pay the premiums on a large amount of life insurance; doubtless felt he would be disgraced in the eyes of his friends and neighbors, and humiliated to have to turn over his position to his successor, in whose presence he was expected to assist auditors in ascertaining whether he had been dishonest. The circumstances are all consistent with the theory of suicide. They would have been just as they were proved to be if he had stood in front of the safe...