11 S.E.2d 716 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1940
The death of an insured caused by the taking of poison as a result of a mistake falls within an exception in the policy of insurance that the insurer will not be liable to pay the extra benefit or double indemnity therein provided for "if the insured's death . . is caused by taking any kind of poison . . whether voluntarily or otherwise."
There is no question that the death of the plaintiff's wife was accidental. It has been held that death resulting from the taking of poison by mistake is within the terms of a policy insuring against death by external, violent, and accidental means. Nichols v. New York Life Ins. Co.,
The exception in this policy that the company would not be liable to pay the extra benefit "if the insured's death is caused by taking any kind of poison, . . whether voluntarily or otherwise," clearly means that the company is not liable under the policy to pay the extra or additional benefit therein provided for accidental death where such death was caused by the taking by the *530 insured of any kind of poison, whether such poison was taken intentionally or through accident or mistake, and would include the voluntary taking of a supposedly harmless drug which, through a mistake and accident on the part of the druggist, was in reality a deadly poisonous drug. It follows that the petition failed to set out a cause of action for the double indemnity or extra benefit provided for in the policy, and that the judge erred in overruling the general demurrer interposed to the petition.
Judgment reversed. Sutton and Felton, JJ., concur.