79 Mo. App. 597 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1899
This is an action upon a benefit certificate payable to plaintiff upon the death of her husband, which, and the other facts entitling her to recover, are alleged in her petition. Defendant admitted all the allegations of the petition except the death of the husband. Upon the trial of that issue, plaintiff had judgment for $2,000, the amount named in the benefit certificate, from which defendant appealed.
On the third of January, 1897, the husband of the plaintiff disappeared, and has not since been seen or heard of by his family or friends. At that date he was sixty-three years of age and resided with his wife at 3540 Olive street, in this city. About twelve years before he met with a total loss of fortune, after which he was employed as bookkeeper in Chicago, and latterly had a business connection in this city, wherein he’ earned about $7 5 per month, but for some time previous to his disappearance, he was unemployed and wholly without any means of support, except the charity of his friends and a former business associate. He became greatly depressed in spirits and often expressed an intention to commit suicide. He was a man of temperate habits, tenderly attached to his wife and married.daughter, who constituted his family. His wife was his constant companion in the evening, either at home, or in visiting together. He wrote his daughter weekly letters often giving vent to his despondency and suggesting that “he had lived too long; that life was not worth living.” On the morning of his disappearance he left a watch belonging to his wife which he had been carrying for years and some memorandum books of his own at his house in a drawer where his shirts were kept and came down town with a small sum of money for car fare and lunch, taking with.him for exchange some china gold which his wife had purchased. This article and a letter to his wife (not received in evidence) were handed to her by Mr. Johnson, the last business associate of her husband, who found them and a letter to himself (not received in evidence) on the floor of his office when he opened it for business on the Monday morning following the Saturday on which plaintiff’s husband disappeared. The day in question was cold, the river filled with floating ice, and the last point at which the husband was seen was the office of the harbor commissioner on the bank of the river, to which he repaired about
But we need not rest our conclusion solely on the probative force of the foregoing evidence in justifying the submission of the issue to the jury as to the death of the husband of the plaintiff, for there was evidence of other special circumstances preceding his disappearance which point rather to his death on the day in question, than the further continuance of his life. Unable to live before that date, as the testimony shows, except by charity and assistance, is it reasonable to assume that stricken in years, friendless and despondent, he
The learned counsel for appellant complains of the reception of evidence tending to show by word or deed, on the part of Mr. Carpenter, his previous mental state on the question of suicide. It was competent for the plaintiff to introduce the evidence in question as tending to‘establish some of the special facts relevant to the greater probability of his death on the day when he suddenly passed out of view with the remark that he would jump into the neighboring river. Our conclusion is that the judgment should be affirmed.