—This action is upon a beneficiary certificate issued by appellant to Bertha A. Shoaf in favor of appellees.
The errors relied upon for a reversal of the judgment are (1) the overruling of appellant’s demurrer to the second
Appellant’s answer averred in substance that the application for insurance disclosed the pregnancy .of Mrs. Shoaf, and that prior to the issuance of the certificate in suit she executed a release, whereby she waived all benefit under the certificate in ease of her death arising from pregnancy, and that within four months thereafter her death resulted from such pregnancy.
The second paragraph of reply admitted that Mrs. Shoaf executed the waiver as alleged and died from puerperal fever, which arose six days after the birth of the child with which she was pregnant at the time of the issuance of said certificate, but it avers that after the execution of said waiver, with full knowledge thereof, the policy was issued promising to pay the whole amount of said insurance in ease of her death, and that after the death of said Bertha A. Shoaf, with full knowledge of the cause thereof, and of all the facts set forth in the answer, appellant required appellees to make full proofs of death, to have a guardian appointed for Edith Shoaf, a minor beneficiary, and required John O. Shoaf to make a trip to Erankfort to meet its supreme counsellor, all at an expense of $-, whereby it had waived such defense, and ought to be estopped from asserting, the same.
“In case any female who is a beneficial member of this order and the holder of this certificate shall be attended at confinement or miscarriage by any midwife, or any one not a regularly licensed prac*371 titioner of medicine, and shall die or become totally disabled as the result of such confinement or miscarriage, then the certificate shall become null and void, and of no binding effect upon this order.”
It is apparent that this is a general provision, and that it was superseded by the special contract made in this case whereby all benefit was waived in case of death arising from pregnancy. Dole v. New England, etc., Ins. Co. (1863), 88 Mass. 373.
ceded that the insured woman died of puerperal septicemia. This disease is generically and inherently associated with parturition, and cannot exist in its absence. It is immaterial whether the disorder is incited by infection from without the subject, or whether it is autogeneric, it is always incidental to childbirth, and its terrors are as old as the human race. If Mrs. Shoaf, apprehending danger from her condition, had secured insurance against death arising from pregnancy, we think there could have been no reasonable ground for disputing liability for death resulting from puerperal septicemia. The same rule of construction applies to the contract in suit, and not the strict doctrine in abhorrence of forfeitures.’ The undisputed evidence and admissions of the parties enable us to say that the death of Mrs. Shoaf arose from her pregnancy, within the meaning of the contract of insurance. Terre Haute, etc., R. Co. v. Buck (1884), 96 Ind. 346, 49 Am. Rep. 168; National Benefit Assn. v. Grauman (1886), 107 Ind. 288; New York, etc., R. Co. v. Perriguey (1894), 138 Ind. 414; Western, etc., Assn. v. Smith (1898), 85 Fed. 401, 29 C. C. A. 223, 40 L. R. A. 653; United States, etc.,
We are unable to say that a right result was reached, and the judgment is reversed, with directions to sustain appellant’s demurrer to the second paragraph of reply.