Scott v. Ætna Life Ins. Co

• Decision Date: 10 April 1935
• Docket Number: No. 667.,667.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: SCOTT. v. ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO.

179 S.E. 434

208 N.C. 160

SCOTT.

v.ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO.

No. 667.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

April 10, 1935.

Appeal from Superior Court, Guilford County; Sink, Judge.

Action by Nell Glenn Scott against the Ætna. Life Insurance Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Reversed.

See, also, 205 N. C. 38, 169 S. E. 801.

On or about April 26, 1921, the defendant delivered to Robert B. Scott two policies of life insurance, Nos. N-282880 and N-282881, each for the amount of $1,000. The plaintiff is the beneficiary named in said policies. Riders were on the policies providing double indemnity and reading as follows: "If the death of the insured occurs before the first anniversary date of this policy which follows the age of seventy years, and before a payment under the permanent total disability provision, if any, has been made or benefit thereunder allowed, all premiums previously due having been paid, and such death result directly and independently of all other causes from bodily injuries effected solely through external, violent and accidental means within ninety days from the occurrence of such accident, and if such accident is evidenced by a visible contusion or wound on the exterior of the body (except in case of drowning and internal injuries revealed by an autopsy), and if such death does not result from suicide, while sane or insane, nor from military or naval service in time of war, nor from any aeronautic flight or submarine descent, nor directly or indirectly from disease in any form, then the Company will pay a sum equal to the sum herein described as the sum insured in addition thereto."

On April 25, 1931, the insured, Robert B. Scott, consulted Dr. Sheffield in Greensboro, N. C., who was a duly and regularly licensed dentist and was admitted to be an expert. Dr. Sheffield said at the trial: "I saw him on or about April 25, 1931, at my office. * * * I extracted a tooth for him. It was a left lower, third molar, last tooth in the mouth. It was extracted about two o'clock in the afternoon. The treatment was as in the usual extraction. The first procedure was to sterilize the area around the tooth. * * * Washing off all debris and foreign particles in that area, followed by an application of tincture of iodine; an injection was made for an anaesthetic, and the tooth was extracted. Immediately following the extraction cotton rolls were placed on either side of the socket until a blood clot was formed in the socket. The date of the extraction was Saturday, April 25th. * * * I saw him on Monday following. * * * At that time I observed first a complete blood clot, no swelling, very little soreness, and no complaint from patient. He reported that he had had no trouble so far. I next saw him on Thursday morning about two o'clock. * * * He called me * * * and told me he was having trouble, and asked me to tell him what to do. * * * At that time he was complaining of a swelling and soreness of the neck, and of course I gave him the treatment, socket treatment, and asked him * * * to get in touch with an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist. * * * I observed swelling about his neck on the left side of his neck and some soreness. * * * The treatment I gave in connection with the extraction of the tooth on April 25 was the treatment that is usually followed by members of my profession, and was the general and approved treatment. * * * In consequence of his asking me to pull it and because of the fact that I thought it ought to be pulled, then I treated it in the manner that teeth are treated by dentists who are preparing to pull that kind of a tooth. I made an X-ray picture of the tooth before I extracted it. I saw that the roots were straight, and that there would not be any difficulty in extracting the tooth. * * * It was just a pure, clean extraction. * * * So far as the extraction is concerned, It had been successful, and the wound was healing up successfully, and there was going to be an uneventful recovery. At the time I saw him on Monday everything was in good shape. He had had an operation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for an ulcerated stomach. * * * I saw him on Friday, May 1, at the hospital. At that time the swelling had increased and it had moved slightly toward the under part of the jaw. After that about seven or eight o'clock P. M. on Friday the incision was made. I was present. That was a week after I had pulled the tooth. * * * The incision was made in toward the center of the throat in order to drain the condition. * * * He died the next morning about two o'clock A. M. He died suddenly. From the information I had as to the manner of, his death, it was my opinion that he died from an embolus. That is the opinion of all the doctors. An embolus is due to a blood clot or some foreign body in the blood that is passing through the heart. It can come from some tissue sloughing from a recent wound, or come from an air bubble, or come from a blood clot, or come from anything that cuts off the arteries. It is entirely possible that infection could have gone into that socket at some time after extraction, and this condition would have set up. * * * It is hard to say definitely whether or not this condition came from the extraction of that tooth. It all lies In this: Every tooth that is extracted is infected, every socket is infected. We have hundreds of organisms in the mouth, so that a patient recovering from a condition like that, it might be fatal, resting entirely on the resistance of the patient to the type of. organisms."

Dr. Schoonover testified: "I was called to see him on Thursday, April 30, 1931. He was unable to speak. I noticed his jaw and neck enormously swollen on the left side.

* * * In my opinion, an infection caused that condition, the condition from which he was suffering. The only infection that would be virulent enough would be what we call streptococcus germs or organisms. * * * It is indefinite how long after that germ is contracted or enters the blood stream before it effects are seen in swelling or otherwise. It can be twenty-four or forty-eight hours. * * * He was carried to the hospital the next morning. * * * At that time he had elevated temperature, his neck was enormously* swollen, he could scarcely turn his head, he was unable to speak, suffering great pain. * * * The other physician and I finally decided to operate. The operation was performed, but I did not get around until about eleven o'clock that night. In the meantime he had been operated on. * * * The operation apparently did give relief. * * * Streptococcus infection was the contributing cause, and there was probably an embolus that was the immediate cause of death. An embolus is a clot of anything that gets in the blood stream and circulates in the blood stream and lodges in the artery of the heart. * * * A clot quite frequently follows an operation. Quite frequently following an operation a patient is relieved of the trouble for which the operation was had and then dies from a blood clot, as a result of the operation. * * * In order for the streptococci germ to get into the blood stream, it has to have an avenue of entrance, a port of entrance, a raw surface. I did not see at any time I saw Mr. Scott what I call a port of entrance or raw surface other than the place where this tooth had been extracted. Probably the embolus could have come from this operation. * * * In my opinion the condition from which Mr. Scott was suffering and which necessitated this operation was an infection * * * and in my opinion that infection came in consequence of a streptococcus germ entering the blood stream from some source and from some place. It usually develops itself in twenty-four or forty-eight hours. No rule about that, that is usually so. Any exposed surface that is broken permits the entry means of those germs on any part of the body."

Dr. R. O. Lyday testified as follows: "I saw Mr. Scott about five or ten minutes after his death. His death was sudden and unexpected. I believe his death was caused from a coronary embolism, * * * An infection of this kind does not usually follow the extraction of a tooth. * *...