149 Iowa 152 | Iowa | 1910
In October, 1907, tbe defendant insured the life of Patrick Gavin in the sum of $1,000, payable to Bridget Gavin, his mother,- the plaintiff herein. The policy contained a provision as follows: “This policy shall cease and be null and void and of no effect, (1) if within two years from the date hereof the insured shall commit suicide or die by his own hand or act, whether sane or insane at the time.” The insured was killed by a gunshot on the 10th day of August, 1908, and the only fact question in the case is whether he purposely shot himself.
The plaintiff and the insured were alone in the house immediately before she went, to the hospital and after her return therefrom. She testifies as follows as to what occurred after she returned from the hospital:
I began straightening up the house, and was raveling some ravels that was on the carpet sweeper and I heard a noise that I thought was a neighbor’s screen door, and I did not pay any attention for quite a while, and, after a while, I went up and you could smell the powder smoke all over the room, and I went to his room and found him moaning twice. I did not go upstairs until about ten minutes after the noise. I did not go in response to the noise. When I went into the room, he was lying on his right side. The bed was a little from the south wall. The bed was lying east and west. It was not quite into the wall. There was nothing between the bed and the west wall. The dresser was to the east of the bed. I*155 can not tell whether he was covered, up when I went up there. lie was lying on his right side, facing the wall toward the south. I put my hand around his head and turned his face toward me, and I thought he smiled up in my face, and that was all. I aslced him, I says, ‘Patrick, can you tell how it was done?’ and I got no answer, of course. I can not tell whether I noticed the wound or not. I afterwards saw where he was hurt. Do not know whether I pulled the cover back over him or not, but I found the revolver lying on the south side of the bed. I took the revolver and laid it on the dresser, did not throw it. I can not say where from the body the revolver was. It may be it would be fifteen inches away from his body.
The plaintiff further testified that she at once called a neighbor, and that the neighbors and officers came; that she did not know where her son’s hand was with reference to the revolver, and did not know where his hand was, “whether lying on top of the cover” or not. “I saw the revolver ... on the covers.”
The coroner, a physician, and two or three officers from the police department were at the home soon after the death, and their testimony is, in substance, as follows: Dr. Morris says: “I found the man lying flat on his back about the middle of the bed, his face on the pillow. I know the body was covered, but do not recollect where the covers were. I think it was pulled down over the chest. The wound looked like a bullet wound about an inch above the nipple on the left side right into the heart. The flesh was discolored around the opening.” Mr. Newlen, the coroner, testified: That he found the body lying about the middle of the bed on its back. That he found “a hole in the left side above the nipple. I should judge about an inch, directly over the right auricle of the heart. It was burned around the hole in the breast about the size of a half dollar. He had on a thin undershirt, kind of gauze. ... I looked to see if the bullet had gone
A separate and- careful examination of the evidence leaves no doubt in our minds that this unfortunate young man took his own life. He had been too ill to work for ten days. No physician attended him or prescribed for him. On the morning of his death, when his mother went to his room, he complained of being cold, asked her to place more cover over him, and told her that he would 'not go to work. lie did not get up that morning, and it is evident that he was very ill. It is equally as apparent that the plaintiff vras then alarmed over his condition, for she at once concluded that the time had come when a physician must be called to attend him. The plaintiff put additional cover on the bed and went for Dr. Priestly, and while the record is silent on the subject, it is not unfair to presume that she communicated her purpose to her sick boy, for such would be the natural thing for a mother to do. There is nothing in the record to sustain the theory of an accidental shooting, and the only way that it can be sustained is by force of the presumption against the taking of one’s own life. But it is almost inconceivable that this sick boy should take his revolver from his dresser to his bed for the purpose of cleaning
This is a stronger case for the defendant than either Beverly v. Supreme Tent, 115 Iowa, 524, or Inghram v. National Union, 103 Iowa, 395, and must be controlled by those decisions. The cases relied upon by tbe appellee were decided upon facts unlike those-now under consideration.
Another matter tbat may properly be considered and mentioned in this connection is tbe fact tbat tbe plaintiff at the time expressed her belief that her son bad committed suicide.