Winton v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 18 February 1939 |
| Citation | 124 S.W.2d 712 |
| Parties | WINTON v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INS. CO. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Petition denied.
Walker & Hooker and Wm. C. Sugg, all of Nashville, for plaintiff in error.
Higgins & Moore, of Nashville, for defendant in error.
This is an action to recover under the double indemnity clauses on two insurance policies on the life of McKinley Winton, the plaintiff, Ruby Winton, his widow, being the beneficiary. A motion was directed by the trial Judge (Neil) for the defendant Company and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
The sole question is whether or not the death of the insured was accidental under our authorities construing this requirement in this class of policies. The contention made in the Court of Appeals and repeated here on behalf of plaintiff below is that the evidence taken as a whole affords material evidence of an accidental death, and that, therefore, this issue should have been submitted to the jury.
The facts are not in material respects in controversy, the insistence being that upon these facts there arose an inference which the jury might legitimately draw to support the claim of accidental death.
The insured was a negro man who, on the night of his death, was out on what might be termed a "wild party". He was a member of a group of negroes, two women and one other man, his wife not being among the number, who were making the rounds of places which, from the record, were more or less disreputable. He was drinking, and the proof indicates was in a turbulent and quarrelsome mood. The party visited a house which appears to have been run by a woman of ill repute, and he seems to have made himself so obnoxious that he was finally evicted from the room in which the others had gathered and forced out onto an adjoining balcony. This further angered and aroused him to violence, and he remained on this balcony making threats of his intention to kill the first of the party who appeared. So far as the proof shows, he was last seen by a negro who lived in adjoining quarters, who had not been a member of this party, but who testifies that as he came to his room, he passed near the deceased and he describes the deceased as crouching down, holding a large knife in his hand, and heard him make one of his threats above mentioned. The next seen of the deceased was when he was found in this vicinity, unconscious, with his skull fractured by a blow on the left side of the head toward the front. The knife was lying by his side. An ambulance was called and he was carried away and did not regain consciousness.
It is conceded that his death was from external and violent means, as required by the terms of the policy, and there is no contention that he had committed suicide. The theory of the trial Judge is not set forth in the...
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