McKeon v. National Casualty Co.
Decision Date | 03 January 1925 |
Docket Number | No. 18668.,18668. |
Citation | 270 S.W. 707 |
Parties | McKEON v. NATIONAL CASUALTY CO. |
Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; William H. Killoren, Judge.
Action by Winifred McKeon against the National Casualty Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Bass & Bass, John Grossman, and James J. O'Donohoe, all of St. Louis, for appellant. Leahy, Saunders & Walther, of St. Louis, for respondent.
This is an action on an accident insurance policy issued by defendant on the life of Thomas F. McKeon, with his wife, the plaintiff, named beneficiary therein. The jury returned a verdict for defendant, and plaintiff, after the court below overruled her motions for a new trial and for judgment non obstante veredicto, appealed from the judgment entered thereon.
Plaintiff's evidence tends to show that defendant on or about March 1, 1919, issued to plaintiff's husband its policy C303988, in which she was named beneficiary, the pertinent parts of which are as follows:
That the policy was renewed by the payment of premiums, and was in force and effect until March 20, 1922; that for loss of life, payable to the beneficiary, the principal sum stated therein was $1,000, and defendant admitted that, in addition to the $1,000 principal sum, the policy had an accumulation of $350 under paragraph F; that Thomas F. McKeon, the insured, died on January 6, 1922, from a gunshot wound entering at the base of the skull; that plaintiff offered and read in evidence a letter from the claims adjuster "of defendant, which letter stated, in substance, that said McKeon met his death by a gunshot wound inflicted by a policeman while endeavoring to apprehend him as an alleged member of a gun gang; that the act is the result produced exactly with the intentions of the actor, the result is not an accident, and could by no means be construed as accidental; that the lack of liability is evident, and that there was no necessity of submitting further proofs for execution to permit of proving the claim, and that they regretted that they cannot give this case further consideration.
Defendant's evidence tended to show that on January 6, 1922, four officers in a police automobile, while going west, met McKeon in an Essex car going east on Locust street. A narrative by one of the officers epitomizes the facts on which defendant relies. It is as follows:
The four officers testified, each separately, that he did not deliberately shoot or kill McKeon, and two, at least, said they bore him no malice. Such other facts as are pertinent will later appear in a discussion of the questions involved.
I. Inasmuch as defendant disclaimed, in the letter to plaintiff's attorney, all liability under the policy sued on, the cause was not prematurely instituted by plaintiff, because she refused to defer to bring the action on the policy until the expiration of 60 days after proof of loss filed as it provided. Baker & Lasley v. Phoenix Ins. Co. (Mo. App.) 221 S. W. 761; Martin v. Insurance Co. (Mo. App.) 256 S. W. 120; Hosmer Bros. v. Insurance Co., 80 Mo. App. 419.
II. It will be noted that the policy insures against accident, resulting solely from bodily injuries effected directly and independently of all other causes, by the happening of an external violent and accidental event. It follows that by introducing in evidence the policy and testimony tending to show that insured met his death as the result of an external, violent, bodily, injury, within four months of the day of the...
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State v. Lowry
...255 Mo. 413. (3) A homicide in resisting an illegal arrest is manslaughter and not murder in the first degree. 29 C.J. 1144; McKeon v. Casualty Co., 270 S.W. 707; Jones v. State, 14 Mo. 412; Robert v. State, 14 Mo. 138; State v. Holcomb, 86 Mo. 371; State v. Edwards, 70 Mo. 482; State v. Ha......
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...v. American Casualty Co. of Reading, supra, 326 A.2d 346), or while in engaging in a shoot-out with police ( McKeon v. National Casualty Co. (1925) 216 Mo.App. 507, 270 S.W. 707), or while fleeing from police in a high-speed automobile chase (Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Henkel (4th Cir.19......
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State v. Lowry
...be given. Jones v. State, 14 Mo. 412; Robert v. State, 14 Mo. 138; State v. Grant, 79 Mo. 134; State v. McGeehee, 274 S.W. 70; McKeon v. Casualty Co., 270 S.W. 707. Instructions which are converse of instructions given by State and which are offered by defendant must be given. State v. Majo......