Nichols v. Commercial Travelers' Eastern Accident Ass'n
| Decision Date | 09 July 1915 |
| Citation | 109 N.E. 449,221 Mass. 540 |
| Parties | NICHOLS v. COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS' EASTERN ACCIDENT ASS'N. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Exceptions from Superior Court, Suffolk County; Frederick Lawton, Judge.
Action by Helen S. Nichols against the Commercial Travelers' Eastern Accident Association. There was a verdict for plaintiff, and defendant excepts. Exceptions overruled.
Whipple, Sears & Ogden, A. R. Shrigley, and Seth T. Crawford all of Boston, for plaintiff.
Walter B. Grant and Nelson L. Sheldon, both of Boston, for defendant.
The plaintiff is the widow of Curtis Nichols and the beneficiary named in a certificate of insurance issued by the defendant providing for the payment to her of a certain sum in the event of the death of her husband 'wholly and entirely by external, violent, and accidental means.' He was found dead in the railroad yard in West Springfield, in the early morning of July 25, 1912. At the close of the evidence the defendant requested the court to instruct the jury that upon all the evidence as matter of law the jury should return a verdict in favor of the defendant. This the court declined to do and the defendant excepted. The defendant also requested the court to give certain other instructions which were refused by the court and the defendant excepted. There was a verdict of $11,164.94 for the plaintiff. The fundamental question is: Was there sufficient evidence that the insured died from external, violent and accidental means to warrant the submission of the case to the jury?
1. Curtis Nichols was a passenger on a train of the Boston & Albany Railroad leaving Boston on the night of July 24, 1912, at 11:15 p. m., for Albany, N.Y. He occupied the lower berth No. 5 in the sleeping car Kitchawan. There was testimony tending to show that as soon as the train left the South Station in Boston he went 'into the smoking room, took off his coat, vest and collar and proceeded to wash'; after he finished he sat opposite a fellow passenger and talked with him on various matters for 'about a half or three-quarters of an hour'; he complained of the heat; in a general way he discussed business, and seemed 'very normal, very jolly and very hopeful on the outlook. 'He finally said he thought 'he would be cooler in the sleeper,' and that he would go to bed. At about 2 o'clock the next morning he was seen by the Pullman conductor 'coming from the gent's toilet at the end * * * towards the rear of the train.' An hour later, about 3 o'clock on that morning, his dead body was found about 20 or 25 feet west of the dry bridge over Main street in West Springfield, lying with the head toward the east, between the two main tracks. A part of his nightshirt 'was on the right side of the body, under the arms and the body.' His skull and cheek bone were fractured. The bed in lower berth 5 was made up in the usual way, with the head toward the engine; a window at the rear or foot of the berth was open and in its place there was a wire screen inclosed by a frame. The space inside the frame of this screen was between 24 and 25 inches wide and 18 inches in height. When the train reached Pittsfield, about 4:10 in the morning, it was found that the bed had been occupied and the bedclothes pushed down from the head. His watch, money and ticket were found under the pillow. His clothing was laid on the shelf. Some of his belongings were found in the small hammock on the inside of the berth, and the east end of this hammock, or the end toward the rear of the train and in front of the open window, was pulled down and hanging loose. The wire screen was found to be broken and torn from the top and sides of the frame, hanging on the outside of the car. Marks resembling finger marks were found on the outside of the car below the window. The window sill was about 8 inches higher than the bed, the lower edge of the wire screen about 1 inch higher than the window sill, and the upper berth about 36 1/2 inches above the bed as made up in the lower berth.
There was evidence that before reaching Springfield the train was 'jerky' in stopping and starting, but all the testimony tended to show that at the place where Nichols was found, which was about half a mile west of Springfield, the train was running smoothly, with no unusual jerk of jolt, at the rate of about 25 or 35 miles an hour, on a level grade where there is a slight curve. While it was warm during the day it grew cooler toward night, and weather observations taken at Boston showed that at 2 o'clock on the morning of July 25 the weather was clear and the temperature 61º, and at 3 o'clock it was 60º. Mrs. Nichols testified that her husband suffered 'from the heat or shortness of breath, and that when it was excessively hot * * * he could not stay in a closed room; * * * sometimes he had slight attacks of indigestion, and then he always felt as if he wanted to get to the open window; * * * that when her husband would get up and go to the window at nights he might stay there probably five minutes'; that he 'was a wonderfully happy person, never had fits of melancholy or nervousness, or anything of that sort'; and several letters from the assured to his wife and children were in evidence, indicating a normal and contented mind. Nichols left word to be called at half past 5 o'clock in the morning, the train being due to arrive at Albany at 6:15 a. m.
On such evidence, especially from the place where the body was found, from the marks upon it and the fractured skull and cheek bone, the jury would be fully justified in finding that Nichols met his death because of external and violent means, and further, that in some unexplained way he fell against, or threw himself against, the screen in such a way that it became broken and he fell from the berth to the ground. When a man is found dead under such circumstances, when the marks on the body show the cause of death and all the circumstances exclude the theory of disease or injuries intentionally inflicted by a third person, it may be inferred that the death was accidental and was not the result of intention or design. When a case of death by violent and external means is made out, the presumption of fact is that because of the external and violent nature of the injuries the death was not intentional and the injuries not self-inflicted. The way in which the assured fell through the screen may be uncertain and conjectural. He may have been leaning against it for fresh air; being a heavy man weighing 200 pounds, he may have been trying to remove the screen to close the window; intentionally or negligently, he may have pushed out the wire and thrown himself from the train; but the plaintiff is entitled to the presumption that her husband did not kill himself, that is to say, the jury might draw such an inference; and having that presumption of fact in her favor, no matter how strongly we may agree with the defendant on the question of fact, we cannot say as matter of law that the question of accident was not properly submitted to the jury. The presumption which the jury could make against intentional self-destruction sustains the burden resting on the plaintiff and makes her case a proper one for the consideration of the jury. Bohaker v. Travelers' Ins. Co., 215 Mass. 32, 102 N.E. 342, 46 L.R.A.(N.S.) 543; Coburn v. Travelers' Ins. Co., 145 Mass. 226, 13 N.E. 604; Travelers' Ins. Co. v. McConkey, 127 U.S. 661, 8 Sup.Ct. 1360, 32 L.Ed. 308; Supreme Tent Knights of Maccabees of the World v. King, 142 F. 678, 73 C. C. A. 668; Zearfoss v. Switchmen's Union of North America, 102 Minn. 56, 112 N.W. 1044; Wilkinson v. AEtna Life Ins. Co., 240 Ill. 205, 88 N.E. 550, 25 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1256, 130 Am.St.Rep. 269.
In Standard Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Thornton, 100 F 582, 40 C. C. A. 564, 49 L.R.A. 116, the facts were in many respects similar to the facts in...
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