Sovereign Camp, W. O. W. v. Hunt
| Decision Date | 03 December 1923 |
| Docket Number | 23707 |
| Citation | 136 Miss. 156,98 So. 62 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | SOVEREIGN CAMP, W. O. W., v. HUNT |
(Division A.) January 1, 1920
INSURANCE. Life policy void, where insured was killed in consequence of violating criminal laws while insane.
A life insurance policy provided that it should be null and void if the insured lost his life "in consequence of a violation of the laws of the state or of the United States or/of any other province or nation, whether the member be at the time sane or insane." The insured lost his life in consequence of a violation of the criminal laws of the state. The evidence on behalf of the beneficiary suing tended to show that the deceased was insane at the time of his death. Held, that the clause in question simply meant that if the insured lost his life in consequence of an act which would have amounted to a violation of the laws of the state if he had been sane, the policy should be void, even though he was insane at the time of such act.
APPEAL from circuit court of Harrison county, HON. D. M. GRAHAM Judge.
Action by Noradolph Hunt, by W. H. Hunt, guardian and next friend against the Sovereign Camp, Woodmen of the World. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and judgment rendered.
Judgment reversed.
Wm. Estopinal, for appellant.
W. L. Guice, for appellee.
[NOTE:--No briefs now on file for either side.]
Appellee, Noradolph Hunt, a minor, by her next friend and guardian, W. H. Hunt, brought this suit in the circuit court of Harrison county against appellant, Sovereign Camp, Woodmen of the World, for the amount of the face of an insurance policy on the life of her father for her benefit, issued by appellant, and recovered a judgment for the amount sued for, from which appellant prosecutes this appeal.
The insured, Adolph Hunt, lost his life at the hands of one Mattina, who shot him to death while said decedent as the aggressor was making an assault with a deadly weapon upon said Mattina, for the purpose apparently of taking his life. In other words, the evidence shows without conflict that said decedent, Adolph Hunt, at the time he was killed by Mattina, was violating the criminal laws of the state, and lost his life in consequence thereof. The defense made by appellant was that there could be no recovery by the beneficiary in said policy under the clause therein providing that the policy should be null and void if the insured lost his life (quoting from the policy) "in consequence of the violation of the laws of the state or of the United States or of any other province or nation whether the member be at the time sane or insane." (Italics ours.) Appellee undertook to show, and testimony was introduced to the effect, that at the time the insured was killed he was insane. Appellant contends that under said stipulation in the policy there can be no recovery in this case, notwithstanding insured was insane. That said provision simply means that if the insured lost his life as the result of conduct that would have constituted a violation of the laws of the state had he been sane, the policy was avoided.
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