Sovereign Camp of Woodmen of World v. Hruby

• Decision Date: 07 October 1903
• Docket Number: 12,441
• Parties: SOVEREIGN CAMP OF THE WOODMEN OF THE WORLD v. VACLAV HRUBY ET AL
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

96 N.W. 998

70 Neb. 5

SOVEREIGN CAMP OF THE WOODMEN OF THE WORLD v. VACLAV HRUBY ET AL

No. 12,441

Supreme Court of Nebraska

October 7, 1903

ERROR to the district court for Cuming county: GUY T. GRAVES JUDGE. Reversed.

REVERSED.

H. C Brome and A. H. Burnett, for plaintiff in error.

Frank Dolezal and Clark C. McNish, contra.

OPINION

HOLCOMB, J.

An action was begun in the court below by the plaintiffs, defendants in error here, for the recovery of the amount named in a beneficiary certificate issued by the plaintiff in error corporation, defendant below, on the life of Joseph Hruby, shortly prior thereto deceased. The beneficiary certificate sued upon contained the following provision:

"If the member holding this certificate should die by his own hand or act, whether sane or insane, this certificate shall be null and void and of no effect, and all moneys which shall have been paid and all rights and benefits which may have accrued on account of this certificate shall be absolutely forfeited without notice or service."

In the answer of the defendant association, among other things, it was alleged that the said Joseph Hruby did die by his own hand, whereby, by the terms of said beneficiary certificate, the same became and was absolutely null and void and the plaintiffs could acquire no rights thereunder. The reply denied the affirmative matter contained in the answer. The cause was tried and submitted to a jury on the issue thus raised, which returned a verdict for the plaintiffs for the amount prayed for in their petition. A motion was filed asking for a new trial on the ground that the court should have directed, as requested, a verdict for the defendant, and because the verdict returned by the jury was not supported nor sustained by the evidence. The motion being overruled, judgment was entered on the verdict and the defendant prosecutes error, relying principally on the ruling of the court on the motion for a new trial on the two different grounds mentioned to secure a reversal of the judgment. It may here be said that the deceased Joseph Hruby came to his death from a pistol shot, the weapon being held in his own hand; and the question for consideration is narrowed to the proposition, solely, as to whether his death was accidental or the result of an intentional taking of his life. It is earnestly insisted on the part of the defendant that, under the evidence, the court should have directed a verdict in its favor, and that the verdict returned is not sustained by and is contrary to the evidence. The decisive question to be determined, and the one to which we are disposed to confine and limit our inquiry and examination of the record is with reference to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. Joseph Hruby was a man thirty years of age, who had resided with his parents on a farm in Cuming county for a number of years, until shortly prior to his death. He was unmarried, apparently in good health in both body and mind, and, with the one exception which will hereafter be noted, it is difficult to glean from a careful examination of the record any reason for the taking of his own life. The beneficiary named in the certificate sued on was one Mary Vlach, who, it appears, had taken her own life just prior to the death of the insured. His next of kin were his father and mother who are plaintiffs in this action. The plaintiffs and most of the witnesses were, when classed as to their nationality, Bohemians, and some points in the testimony, having possibly a material bearing on the issues, are left in some uncertainty, attributable no doubt to the witnesses' inability to understand and speak the English language perfectly. In the certificate and the application for it, it was represented that Mary Vlach was a cousin of the insured. From the testimony taken it appears that she was not thus related, although her mother and the father of Joseph Hruby, deceased, thus speak of the relationship of the two, but they can give no intelligent explanation of the kinship thus said to exist. It appears that the families of the Hrubys and the Vlachs were intimate from their early days, and it may be probable that their ancestors were in some way related. It appears, however, that there was a very warm attachment existing between the deceased and Mary Vlach, more nearly resembling that of the marriage engagement than of near relationship, although it is denied by the parents that any such engagement existed. For some months just prior to his death, Joseph Hruby had found employment in South Omaha, where he was working. Mary Vlach, it appears, was almost, if not quite, an invalid, and had suffered two surgical operations for her ailment. A third one, it seems, was regarded as necessary, rather than undergo which she took her life. Joseph Hruby was informed by telegraph of her death, but not of the cause, and immediately went from South Omaha to the home of her parents in Cuming county, where her remains lay. He arrived at the home of the parents about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, and remained in the room, where the body of the deceased girl lay, almost continuously until time for the afternoon meal, when, while he was alone in the room, a pistol shot was heard, and he was found immediately after in a dying condition, with a revolver in his hand, one chamber of which had been emptied. Mrs. Vlach, the mother of the deceased girl, testifies that after he came he cried a "good deal" and paced up and down the room, and that during the afternoon he was walking back and forth in the room where the body lay. The mother and Hruby remained in the room, conversed together more or less until she left him to prepare the evening meal. He was, at first, under the impression that the girl's death was from natural causes. When she informed him of the true cause of her daughter's death and showed him the self-inflicted wound producing it, he was greatly shocked and grieved, and expressed much surprise that she should thus end her life. Mrs. Vlach was the last to see him before his death, and the first person who saw him after the shot was fired which terminated his life. She had left him but a few minutes before for the purpose of preparing his supper. She testifies:

Q. Where was Joseph Hruby the last time you saw him alive?

A. He was sitting on my bed joining that of my daughter.

Q. Was that the same room the body of your daughter was in?

A. Same room.

Q. And that was in that bedroom in the north end of the house?

A. Northeast corner.

Q. What was he doing the last time you saw him?

A. Last I saw of him he was in the kitchen, he was walking up and down, I went into the pantry and I then volunteered to make the supper for him. Well, I was preparing supper, I heard an alarm, and heard a report of some kind, and I ran into the room, and found Hruby standing up by the bed, and reeled around and fell face down toward the bed, right next to the body of the deceased girl.

Q. Did he have anything in his hand?

A. He had a revolver.

Q. In what hand?

A. In the right hand.

Q. Was he standing up when you went into the room?

A. That is before he reeled, he made a turn, and then fell down, and held the revolver in his right hand.

Q. Where were you when you heard the revolver shot?

A. In the kitchen.

Q. Who else was in the kitchen?

A. I was in the kitchen, alone.

Q. Where was Mrs. Joseph Vlach, Jr.?

A. She was in the kitchen.

Q. Where was Miss Barta?

A. In the kitchen.

Q. Who else was there?

A. No one else.

Q. Where was your son Joseph Vlach?

A. My son was on the premises.

Q. Well, whereabouts on the premises?

A. Well, now, he was in the yard.

Q. What was the next thing that was done after you saw him fall?

A. Why, I knelt down, and tried to remonstrate with him, why he had done the deed, and he simply rolled up his eyes, and quite a large amount of blood ran from him, and he died instantly afterwards.

Another witness, a doctor who was called after the death of Hruby had occurred, found him where he lay after he had fallen to the floor, the revolver lying by the body with one chamber discharged, a bullet-hole where the bullet had entered the right temple an inch and a half above and slightly forward from the lobe of the right ear, and his scalp powder burned at the point where the bullet entered. No other evidence is in the record more directly to the point as to the cause of death than which we have quoted, nor is there any conflict or contradiction. All of the other testimony buttresses and supports the essential features just referred to. If any reason is disclosed for the intentional taking of his own life by the deceased, Hruby, and it seems there must be one to account for his self-destruction, if such be the case, it must, we think, be found in the very strong attachment existing toward the deceased, Mary Vlach, and his grief and affliction because of her tragic end. That there was a most intense affection existing between them is clearly disclosed by the whole record and, more especially, by a letter written to her by him while in South Omaha a short time before her death, which can not well be disregarded in this connection. He addresses her in the fondest and most endearing terms; tells her how he is progressing in his new work, and of his plans and prospects for the future. He speaks of having obtained a number of shares in a gold mining company that he believes and asserts are very valuable; what his yearly income would probably be, and asks if that is not pretty good for "us two." He asks her to keep the information to herself, and offers to transfer his certificates of stock to her name and have it sent to her, charging her for the second time to say nothing about the matter but to keep it...