139 Iowa 166 | Iowa | 1908
A certificate of membership in the Iowa State Traveling Men’s Association was issued to James P: Fenton, May 13, 1901, and he was in good standing therein when he died September 13, 1904. Plaintiff is the beneficiary named in the certificate, and as such is entitled to recover the stipulated indemnity of $5,000 if death was accidental, unless some of the defenses interposed shall prevail. These were (1) that the injuries causing death were sustained while deceased was under the influences of intoxicating liquors; (2) that death happened on account or by reason or in consequence thereo'f; and (3) that the certi-. ficate of membership was obtained by fraud. No evidence was introduced concerning the last defense. The other two are based on by-laws exempting the association from liability “ for any accident to a member while the said member is in any degree under the influence of intoxicating liquors or narcotics, or which shall happen on account or by reason or in consequence of the use thereof.”
No argument is required to demonstrate that from the foregoing evidence the jury might have found that deceased was not under the influence of liquor when he fell. Did that introduced by defendant negative conclusively the inferences to be drawn therefrom? The clerk of the hotel testified that the deceased was under such influence of intoxicating liquor all the time he was at the hotel up to five or six o’clock Monday morning when he was more sober than before and said he would get a drink and then “ sober up.” But the credibility of this witness was assailed by
The fourteenth instruction was a correct statement of the law concerning impeaching evidence, and the record was' such as to render it proper.
The defects, if any, in other instructions, criticised as not being sufficiently explicit, are cured by those given at the request of defendant.
The record is without reversible error, and the judgment is affirmed.