Miller v. Travelers' Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 27 December 1888
• Citation: 39 Minn. 548,40 N.W. 839
• Parties: MILLER ET AL. v TRAVELERS' INS. CO.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

39 Minn. 548

40 N.W. 839

MILLER ET AL.vTRAVELERS' INS. CO.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

December 27, 1888.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

A policy of accident insurance contained the express condition that it should not cover accidents, injuries, or death from trying to enter a moving steam-vehicle, this provision not being applicable to railway employes. The assured, a banker, was killed while attempting to get on a moving railway train. Held, that the company were not liable.

A provision of the policy limiting the liability of the company to a less sum than that named in the policy, if the assured should be injured in any occupation or exposure classed as more hazardous than that specified in the policy, held not to affect the case.

Appeal from district court, Hennepin county; HICKS, Judge.

Action on an accident insurance policy, by Roswell Miller and others, against the Travelers' Insurance Company. Judgment in favor of defendant. Plaintiffs appeal from an order denying a new trial.

J. C. Worrall, (R. G. Evans, of counsel,) for appellants.

W. D. Cornish, for respondent.

DICKINSON, J.

This action is for the recovery of the amount of a policy of insurance, whereby, in consideration of $20 premium paid, the defendant insured one James C. Miller in the sum of $5,000 against death from accident. It appeared from the case presented at the trial on the part of the Plaintiffs, that Miller, in company with another man, attempted to get upon a railway train in motion, just after it had started from the railway station at St. Paul, going to Minneapolis. The train was moving at the rate of about four miles an hour. The two men attempted at once to get on the train, at the forward end of the mail or baggage car, next to the engine. Miller, after having seized the rail upon the platform of the car, from some cause failed to secure a footing upon the car, his movements probably being interfered with by the efforts of his companion to get upon the car at the same time. He fell off, was struck by the oil box outside of the wheels of the moving car, which resulted in his body being brought under the truck of the car, and he was killed. The defendant classified such insurance risks with regard to the hazard attending the occupation of the assured. Miller was a banker, one of the least hazardous kinds of occupation, and he was insured as such, the risk being classified in the policy as select. In the body of the policy, following the agreement to make payment in case of injury causing disability or death, is the following language: “Except that, if injured in any occupation or exposure classed by this company as more hazardous than that here given, his insurance and weekly indemnity shall be whatever the premiums paid by him will purchase at the rates fixed for such increased hazard.” By the terms of the policy the agreement was...