Sachs v. Independence Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 23 January 1948 |
| Citation | 306 Ky. 385 |
| Parties | Sachs v. Independence Ins. Co. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
1. Appeal and Error. — Where plaintiff took no exception to trial judge's conclusions of law, grounds for reversal based on alleged erroneous conclusions of law could not be considered by Court of Appeals, but where case involved both questions of law and questions of fact, plaintiff's motion for new trial saved question of correctness of findings of fact and inferences to be drawn therefrom.
2. Appeal and Error. — Where case is submitted to jury under erroneous instructions, not excepted to, errors in instructions are not reviewable on appeal, but motion for new trial will enable court to determine whether verdict is sustained by the evidence.
3. Insurance. — Evidence that injury sustained by insured in minor automobile accident one week before death would not have caused death if he had been a normal, healthy person, that he died from coronary occlusion, and that heart disease and trauma were two facts which together produced the occlusion, but that trauma alone and independent of all other causes did not cause his death, authorized finding that death was "caused or contributed to directly or indirectly by disease" within accident policy provision for exclusion from coverage.
Appeal from Jefferson Circuit Court.
Steinfeld & Steinfeld and L.H. Hilton for appellant.
Peter, Heyburn & Marshall and Gavin H. Cochran for appellees.
Before Roscoe Conkling, Judge.
Affirming.
Joseph G. Sachs, Jr., died on January 1, 1945. Ruth G. Sachs, his executrix, brought this suit against the Independence Insurance Company to recover $2,250 under an accident policy which insured the deceased "* * * against death or disability resulting directly, independently and exclusively of all other causes from bodily injuries effected solely through external, violent and accidental means and sustained by the insured in the manner following:
The policy contained this provision: "This insurance does not cover * * * (13) death, disability or loss caused or contributed to directly or indirectly by * * * any disease, infirmity * * * or physical impairment * * *."
The case, by agreement, was tried on law and facts without the intervention of a jury, and the trial judge, pursuant to a joint motion of the parties, separated his findings of fact and conclusions of law. Judgment was entered in favor of the defendant, and the plaintiff's petition was dismissed. The plaintiff filed a motion and grounds for a new trial which the court overruled, but she took no exception to the conclusions of law as required by section 332 of the Civil Code of Practice. The appellee takes the position that any alleged errors in the trial court's conclusions of law cannot be reviewed on appeal since no exceptions thereto were filed, and the judgment therefore must be affirmed.
The appellee's position is correct to the extent that grounds for reversal based on alleged erroneous conclusions of law arrived at by the trial judge cannot be considered, Income Life Insurance Company v. Anderson, 250 Ky. 367, 63 S.W. 2d 1, but the case involves a question of law and a question of fact and the motion for a new trial saves the question of the correctness of the finding of facts and the inferences to be drawn therefrom. Schaaf v. Brown, 304 Ky. 466, 200 S.W. 2d 909. For example, if a case is submitted to a jury under erroneous instructions, not excepted to, the errors in the instructions are not reviewable on appeal, but a motion for a new trial will enable the court to determine whether or not the verdict is sustained by the evidence.
The evidence in this case shows that Joseph G. Sachs, Jr., a lawyer by profession, died on January 1, 1945, at the age of 51 years. Prior to March, 1938, he was apparently in good health and performed all the duties incident to the practice of his profession. Some time after January 1, 1938, while in Washington, D.C., he was taken ill and was advised by a physician to consult a heart specialist. In March, 1938, after his return to his home in Louisville he consulted Dr. Morris Weiss, an eminent heart specialist, who found him to be suffering from a condition of the arteries around the heart which Dr. Weiss diagnosed as coronary arteriosclerosis with angina pectoris. At Dr. Weiss' suggestion the insured entered the Baptist Hospital at Louisville for a complete rest, and on March 24, 1938, while in bed in the hospital, he suffered, as stated by Dr. Weiss, "a complete blockage of one of these sclerotic coronary arteries, a condition called coronary thrombosis." Mr. Sachs remained in the hospital until May 25, 1938, when, at the suggestion of Dr. Weiss, he went to Florida for further rest. He remained in Florida until July 27, 1938, when he returned to his home in Louisville and resumed the practice of law and his normal way of living with certain restrictions prescribed by Dr. Weiss, whom he consulted periodically for checkups with respect to his heart. He had several attacks of angina pectoris during the ensuing years, usually following overexertion, but none of the attacks was serious. He always carried nitroglycerin tablets with him at his physician's direction. In September, 1944, while in Cleveland on business, he fell and fractured six ribs. On his return to Louisville he consulted Dr. Weiss who made an electrocardiographic examination of his heart, and found that the accident had not affected it. In the early part of December, 1944, the insured made a business trip to Washington, D.C., in behalf of one or more clients. He left Washington on December 23, and stopped in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he visited his married daughter. He left Cincinnati on the...
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