McGrady v. Liberty Nat. Life Ins. Co., 7 Div. 578

• Decision Date: 18 August 1959
• Docket Number: 7 Div. 578
• Citation: McGrady v. Liberty Nat. Life Ins. Co., 114 So.2d 324, 40 Ala.App. 390 (Ala. App. 1959)
• Parties: Oscar L. McGRADY v. LIBERTY NATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.
• Court: Alabama Court of Appeals

Page 324

114 So.2d 324

40 Ala.App. 390

Oscar L. McGRADY v.LIBERTY NATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.

7 Div. 578.

Court of Appeals of Alabama.

Aug. 18, 1959.

Thos. Reuben Bell, Sylacauga, for appellant.

Spain, Gillon & Young, Ralph B. Tate and Jos. G. Gamble, Jr., Birmingham, and Dixon, Wooten & Boyett, Talladega, for appellee.

CATES, Judge.

Is a boy who dies while in a school for retarded children a member of the family living in his father's household under a 'family group' life insurance policy if, at the issuance of the policy and thereafter, he was at the school and not at his parents' home?

The trial judge thought not, for he directed a verdict for Liberty National in an action for $500, the scheduled amount payable on the death of this child.

McGrady's assignments of error raise other questions which, in our view, are inseparable from the main point as to the propriety of the peremptory charge.

Some two years before taking out this insurance, Mr. McGrady had his son committed by court order to the Partlow School, and the boy stayed there until he died in 1958.All the while the family lived in Sylacauga, a hundred miles away.

The contract, which was issued April 22, 1957, provided in part:

'* * * we insure you and the eligible members of your family * * *

'Eligible Family Members--Members of your family who are insured under this policy are your wife and your unmarried children (including stepchildren and legally adopted children) under...