The Continental Casualty Company v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 09 June 1906
• Docket Number: 14,649
• Citation: 74 Kan. 129,85 P. 545
• Parties: THE CONTINENTAL CASUALTY COMPANY v. GRANT G. JOHNSON
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

85 P. 545

74 Kan. 129

THE CONTINENTAL CASUALTY COMPANY v. GRANT G. JOHNSON

No. 14,649

Supreme Court of Kansas

June 9, 1906

Decided January, 1906.

Error from Harvey district court; PETER J. GALLE, judge.

Judgment affirmed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. ACCIDENT INSURANCE--Sunstroke. The word "sunstroke," when used in an insurance policy in describing one of the risks covered, should not be interpreted as applying only to an effect produced by the heat of the sun, unless the context or other special considerations require it; the term unexplained denotes a condition produced by any heat, solar or artificial.

2. ACCIDENT INSURANCE--Disability Due to Artificial Heat. In an action upon an accident-insurance policy containing a provision that loss of time due to sunstroke should be deemed to be due to external, violent and purely accidental causes and should entitle the insured to full benefits according to the terms of the policy, where the plaintiff's claim is based upon a loss which he alleges was due to sunstroke, he is not precluded from recovery by the fact that his disability was occasioned by exposure to the heat of a furnace, not to that of the sun.

Bowman & Bowman, for plaintiff in error; Manton Maverick, of counsel.

J. S. Henderson, and Branine & Branine, for defendant in error.

MASON J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

MASON, J.

Grant G. Johnson held a policy of insurance issued by the Continental Casualty Company, the principal purpose of which was to provide indemnity to the amount of ten dollars a week against loss occasioned by accidental injury, its phraseology being that usually employed in contracts of that character. It also contained a provision as follows:

"The loss of . . . time, as above provided, due solely to . . . sunstroke or freezing due solely to necessary exposure while engaged in his occupation, shall be deemed to be due to external, violent and purely accidental causes and shall entitle the insured to full benefits according to the terms of this policy."

What is called a "health-insurance rider" was attached to and made a part of the policy, providing that for time lost by illness or disease the insured should be entitled to receive five dollars a week. Johnson was a flue-welder, and while engaged in that occupation was overcome by heat from the forge or furnace near which he worked and in consequence thereof became ill and suffered the loss of nearly a year's time. He brought an action upon his policy alleging that his loss was due to sunstroke, and recovered a judgment based upon that theory. The company prosecutes error, and rests its case upon one general contention, which if sound requires a reversal of the judgment, namely, that the word "sunstroke" as used in the policy referred only to an effect produced by the heat rays of the sun. If, however, the word was there employed in a sense that made it applicable to a condition resulting from artificial heat the judgment must stand, for there was abundant evidence that the plaintiff suffered from sunstroke if that term may be used to describe a disorder so occasioned.

The only definition of sunstroke given in Webster's International Dictionary is as follows:

"Any affection produced by the action of the sun on some part of the body; especially, a sudden prostration of the physical powers, with symptoms resembling those of apoplexy, occasioned by exposure to excessive heat, and often terminating fatally."

This language is not free from ambiguity, but seems to recognize two meanings of the word; in the one case as colloquially used in a popular and general sense, referring to any ill effects resulting from exposure to the direct rays of the sun, and in the other as accurately employed in a scientific and technical way to denote a specific ailment caused by excessive heat from any source. The Standard Dictionary gives but one meaning, as follows: "A sudden cerebral disturbance, often with apoplectic symptoms, due to exposure to excessive heat, generally that of the sun." The definition of the Century Dictionary is not so explicit, but is probably open to the same construction. It is:

"Acute prostration from excessive heat of weather. Two forms may be distinguished--one of sudden collapse without pyrexia (heat exhaustion), the other with very marked pyrexia (thermic fever). The same effects may be produced by heat which is not of solar origin."

The Encyclopaedia Britannica thus defines sunstroke, giving heat-stroke as a synonym: "A term applied to the effects produced upon the central nervous system, and through it upon other organs of the body, by exposure to the sun or to overheated air." In the course of the article introduced by the words just quoted it is said:

"While attacks of sunstroke are frequently precipitated by exposure, especially during fatigue, to the direct rays of the sun, in a large number of instances they come on under other circumstances. Cases are of not infrequent occurrence among soldiers in hot climates where there is over-crowding or bad ventilation in their barracks, and sometimes several will be attacked in the course of a single night. The same remark applies to similar conditions existing on shipboard. Further, persons whose occupation exposes them to excessive heat, such as stokers, laundry workers, &c., are apt to suffer, particularly in hot seasons."

The Encyclopedia Americana article on the subject begins:

"Sunstroke, prostration due to exposure to intense external heat. Such exposure may be to the direct or indirect rays of a tropical sun or to the excessive heat of an engine-room. In either case heat and physical exertion combine to bring about the results. A high degree of humidity of the atmosphere is one of the most important features, since this hinders free evaporation from the body."

The New International Encyclopaedia treats the word as a synonym of heat-stroke, which it defines thus: "The effect produced upon the body by exposure to intense heat, whether from the sun, from furnaces, or from the atmosphere." The Universal Cyclopaedia furnishes this definition: "Fever due to excessive heat, but most commonly to exposure to the direct heat of the sun; indirect solar heat or artificial heat may have the same effect."

A number of medical dictionaries apply the word to a specific fever caused by heat, regardless of its origin, as shown by the following definitions: "Heat-stroke, especially that due to exposure to the sun's rays." (Billings, Nat. Med. Dic.) "A popular term for insolation or heat-stroke." (Gould, New Med. Dic.) "A condition resulting from exposure to the heat of the sun or to heat from other sources." (J. K. Fowler, Dic. of Prac. Med.) "Heat-stroke, especially from direct sun-rays." (Keating, New Pron. Dic. of Med., 2d ed.) "Certain pathological conditions resulting from exposure to solar or artificial heat." (Quain, Dic. of Med., 11th ed.)

The following-named works fail to recognize the application of the term to any case not resulting from solar heat, but whatever significance might otherwise attach to this fact is diminished if not destroyed by the further fact that they treat heat-stroke in the same way, the first five giving it as a mere synonym of sunstroke, and the others ignoring it altogether: Appletons' Medical Dictionary Lippincott's Medical Dictionary, Dunglison's Medical Dictionary, Foster's Encyclopaedic Medical Dictionary, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Thomas's Medical Dictionary, the Imperial Dictionary, Worcester's...