Wright v. Continental Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 29 February 1928
• Docket Number: 20929.
• Citation: Wright v. Continental Life Ins. Co., 146 Wash. 665, 264 P. 410 (Wash. 1928)
• Parties: WRIGHT v. CONTINENTAL LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

264 P. 410

146 Wash. 665

WRIGHT v. CONTINENTAL LIFE INS. CO.

No. 20929.

Supreme Court of Washington

February 29, 1928

Department 2.

Appeal from Superior Court, King County: Frater, Judge.

Action by John B. Wright, as administrator of the estate of Richard T. Sandgren, deceased, against the Continental Life Insurance Company. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Robert A. Devers, of Seattle, for appellant.

Roberts & Skeel and Wm. Truscott, all of Seattle, for respondent.

MACKINTOSH C.J.

Richard T. Sandgren in his lifetime purchased for $1 a policy of accident insurance in the respondent company. Across the face of the policy in red letters appeared this warranty: 'This is a limited policy.' This statement represented truthfully the character of the insurance issued.

Among the provisions was one that death occasioned 'by being accidentally thrown from' an automobile would be compensated for.

The testimony in the case showed that Sandgren, while a passenger in an autotruck, was killed by having his head come in contact with an upright of a bridge through which the truck was being driven.

The trial court entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict of a jury upon the ground that the death did not result from being 'accidentally thrown from' the vehicle. A reading of the testimony compels us to reach the same conclusion as was reached by the trial court, for it shows that at no time was Sandgren's body out of the truck; that the driver made a quick swere to avoid hitting the girders of the bridge, which was considerably narrower than the highway approaching it that the truck came so near to the structure of the bridge that Sandgren's head struck an upright, causing his death; and that all the time his...