Scarborough v. World Ins. Co., 22

• Decision Date: 26 September 1956
• Docket Number: No. 22,22
• Citation: 244 N.C. 502,94 S.E.2d 558
• Parties: Edna M. SCARBOROUGH V. WORLD INSURANCE COMPANY.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 558

94 S.E.2d 558

244 N.C. 502

Edna M. SCARBOROUGH

V.

WORLD INSURANCE COMPANY.

No. 22

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Sept. 26, 1956

Jack W. Marer, R. C. Andrews, Omaha, Neb., and Worth & Horner, Elizabeth City, for defendant, appellant.

Wallace R. Gray, and McCown & McCown, Manteo, for plaintiff, appellee.

DEVIN, Justice.

The policy issued to Adrian C. Midgett by the defendant insured against loss of life resulting directly and independently of all other causes from bodily injuries sustained through purely accidental means. It was not controverted that the death of the insured resulted from an altercation with the witness Baldwin. From the testimony of this witness, who was the sole witness to the occurrence offered by the plaintiff, the conclusion seems inescapable that the insured was the aggressor; that he used the language of vituperation and fury and demonstrated an attempt to do violence to the person of the witness; that he advanced with arms raised up the steps of Baldwin's home in such a manner as to put Baldwin in fear, so much so that Baldwin was caused to push him away to protect himself and his home, and then to retreat within doors.

The policy sued on insured against loss of life resulting from bodily injuries sustained through accidental means. In Fletcher v. Security Life & Trust Co., 220 N.C. 148, 16 S.E.2d 687, Barnhill, J., drew the distinction between 'accidental' and 'accidental means' as these terms are used in accident insurance policies, and pointed out that the phrase 'accidental means' refers to the occurrence or happening which produces the result rather than the result. Scott v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 208 N.C. 160, 179 S.E. 434; Kirkley v. Merrimack Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 232 N.C. 292, 59 S.E.2d 629; Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp. v. Glover, 165 Va. 283, 182 S.E. 221. See also Michie's Jurisprudence, Law of Virginia, Insurance Sec. 128; Vance on Insurance, 569.

Where the policy insures against loss of life through accidental means, the principle seems generally upheld that if the death of the insured, although in a sense unforeseen and unexpected, results directly from the insured's voluntary act and aggressive misconduct, or where the insured culpably provokes the act which causes the injury and death, it is not death by accidental means, even though the result may be such as to constitute an accidental injury. 45 C.J.S., Insurance, § 753, p. 779.

Where the insured is the aggressor in a personal encounter and commits an assault upon another with demonstration of violence and knows, or under the circumstances should reasonably anticipate, that he will be in danger of great bodily harm as the natural and probable consequence of his act or course of conduct, his injury or death may not be...