179 Iowa 33 | Iowa | 1917
Upon familiar principles, the settled character of which we do not understand appellee to deny, the admitted fact that Michalek died while a member of the association in good standing is sufficient to show the plaintiff entitled to recover, in the absence of evidence tending to support the affirmative plea of suicide. If there be such evidence, then under all ordinary circumstances an issue is disclosed upon which either party is entitled to have the verdict of a jury. It is not to be denied, however, that a case may arise where the showing of suicide is so undisputed, clear and convincing that the court may find the truth of the plea established as a matter of law. Inghram v. National Union, 103 Iowa 395. Was the defense in this ease thus conclusively proved?
The mechanism of the revolver is mentioned by several witnesses, but it is not in all respects clear to the reader. It was an automatic, with a cylinder of five chambers. After the shooting, it was found to have three empty chambers and two chambers holding unexploded cartridges. The daughter swears that, when using the revolver on Saturday, she and her father had some trouble in operating it. She says, “We had some difficulty with the revolver that day.” Her words are:
“I shot out of the revolver twice, and the third time I pulled the trigger, the revolver would not go off, and I handed it to father and he turned the cylinder and gave it back to me, and I shot it the other three times.”
Another witness says that “the revolver in question, — ■ when the trigger is back, it apparently sticks. The spring below the hammer which throws the trigger forward is apparently out of condition.”
It is but fair, however, to say that this witness had, on an earlier occasion, found the mechanism in working condition, and he thinks something happened to it after his first' inspection.
Another witness says:
“The revolver is out of order, but the safety device is not.”
‘ ‘ They get out of order occasionally. The cylinder could stick occasionally and operate all right at other times.”
From the date of the shooting until the trial below, the weapon had been kept in the possession of the coroner. Nothing is proved tending to show the deceased to have been insane or intoxicated.
On the other hand, the theory of suicide is based upon the fact that the deceased had in his own hand the weapon which killed him; that, as is claimed, there were three gun shot wounds found in his breast; that it is highly improbable, under the circumstances, that three such wounds could have all been accidentally inflicted; and that the proofs of death filed with the company by or on behalf of the plaintiff admit that the death was by suicide.
That the last mentioned circumstance may be more clearly understood, we will state that, by the rules of the association, upon being notified of the death of a member, the chief secretary is required to send the secretary of the local lodge blank forms to be used in making formal proofs Of death. The local secretary then delivers the blanks to the beneficiary. This procedure seems to have been followed. The local secretary, at the request of plaintiff, filled out the blank forms, and plaintiff executed them. Of the questions and answers, two only bear upon the point made by defendant, and are as follows:
“10. ITow long was deceased sick? Ans. In good health just prior to his death.
“11. Of what disease did he die? Ans. No disease, suicide. ’ ’
Accompanying the affidavit of the plaintiff was another, in which questions were addressed to and answered by a physician. Of these, the following are in point:
“Q. State the immediate cause of death. A. Three gun shot wounds. Q. If from any cause other than disease,
The custom or rule of the association appears also to have required the execution of a statement by the officers of the local lodge, supported by another affidavit of the beneficiary. In the present instance, this certificate recited the membership of the deceased in good standing at the time of his death, and that “the cause of his death was said to be suicide.” Plaintiff’s affidavit sets out the circumstances of the death, and concludes with the statement:
“In my opinion he committed suicide, although I know no reason why he should do it, as there was no trouble in the family or in financial matters.”
As a witness on the trial, she says she did not tell the secretary that her husband committed suicide; that she did not read the paper after the blanks were filled, and did not understand them as affirming the fact of suicide, and further explains by saying:
“I said he did it by his own hand, but I'did not mention suicide. That is, I meant nobody else done it.”
Of the last mentioned statement, accompanying the certificate by the lodge officers, she says, if we understand the record, that the paper was brought to her prepared for her signature; and, while she admits she read it, she further says: “I did not understand what I was reading. I can read part of it, but I cannot make anything out of it. I have not had sufficient schooling to read after a lawyer. I told Mr. O’Brien at that time that in my opinion he did not commit suicide.”
We might also add that, while most of the witnesses who saw the dead body say that there were three wounds in the breast, yet not all are agreed. One witness for the defendant, a deputy sheriff, who was a near neighbor and one of the first on the ground after the shooting, says the first thing he did was to examine Michalek’s body, and there were two
Before passing upon the question whether this record malíes out a case of suicide as a matter of law, let us look as briefly as practicable to the rules and principles by which we must be governed.
That the defense relied upon is an affirmative one, and
‘ ‘ This presumption has the effect of affirmative evidence, and, unless so negatived ... as to leave room for no other reasonable hypothesis than that of suicide, such presumption will be allowed to prevail, and a verdict thereon will not be set aside for want of evidence.” Stephenson v. Bankers Life Assn., 108 Iowa 637, 641.
It has been elsewhere said:
‘ ‘ If the known facts are consistent with a cause of death which does not involve self-destruction, that cause must be accepted. After all the hypotheses which, are consistent with an innocent or accidental death are eliminated, the conclusion of suicide may then be drawn. The burden is upon the defendant to show that the circumstances and conditions are inconsistent with any other reasonable cause of death than that of suicide; that is, it must eliminate and disprove all other causes of death which are consistent with the evidence
See also Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. DeVault, 109 Va. 392, 402. Quite to the point, also, is the language of the Supreme Court of the United States, where, speaking by Brewer, J., it refused to disturb a verdict for a beneficiary, saying:
“Whether the deceased committed suicide was a question of fact, and a jury is the proper trier of such questions. It is not absolutely certain that the deceased committed suicide.” Pythias Knights’ Supreme Lodge v. Beck, 181 U. S. 49 (45 L. Ed. 741).
Says the Virginia court:
“We are of opinion that the defense of suicide should be established by clear and satisfactory proof, such as is required to establish a fraud.” Life Ins. Co. v. Hairston, 108 Va. 832. Walden v. Bankers Life Assn., 89 Neb. 546.
Even where, as in this case, there is direct evidence that the death was caused by a weapon in the hands of the deceased himself, the presumption still prevails; because, if nothing more than that is shown, there is still room for the hypothesis that his act in that regard may have been involuntary or accidental. Paulsen v. Modern Woodmen of Am., 21 N. D. 235 (130 N. W. 231); Industrial v. Watt, 95 Ark. 456; Walden v. Bankers Life Assn., 89 Neb. 546 (131 N. W. 962). This presumption has been held to prevail where it was certain that the pistol could not have been fired except by pulling the trigger, because it may have been pulled unintentionally or involuntarily. Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Ford (Tex.), 130 S. W. 769 (131 S. W. 406).
Appellee’s chief reliance in this case is, first, upon the physical fact displayed by the wounds upon the body of the deceased, and second, upon the statements or admissions by the plaintiff in her proofs of loss.
In the case of Leman v. Manhattan Life Ins. Co., 46 La. Ann. 1189, the deceased died of a gunshot wound. ' The discharged pistol was in his hand, the thumb thrust through the guard. The physicians called pronounced it a suicide, and the proof of loss sent to the company stated- suicide as the cause of death. The trial court found for the defendant, but on appeal the judgment was reversed. The- court there says:
“Giving all due effect to the expert testimony, it is at least fair to say it does not éstablish the suicide. In any consideration of the cause of the death weight is due to ’ the condition of the deceased in life, i. e., his domestic relations, his means, his health and the state of his mind. It is human experience that the motive prompting self-destruction is to be sought, and usually found, in domestic unhappiness, ill health, financial troubles or insanity. . . .- The deceased was fortunate in business, had a wife and children to whom he was attached, and with whom he was happy. He parted with them on the day of his death in the best of spirits, and the shock of his death came a few hours later. No physical malady or mental disturbance or financial trorible existed to furnish any cause for taking his life. In this condition of the record there is no adequate basis to refer the death to the intentional act of the deceased.”
Iii a later case in the same court, the insured went into a room in his own home, whence a shot was soon heard. His family entered the room, and found him sitting in a chair, unconscious from a fatal gunshot wound. The gun was lying across the deceased’s leg. It was one both father and son used for shooting rats. The lock was out of order. There was evidence tending to show that, on one or two other occasions, he had used language indicating a desire to die, or a purpose to commit suicide. Otherwise, there was nothing
“It may have been that he intended to use it for an entirely proper purpose. The freaks of a gun, when not carefully handled, are sometimes wonderful. "We do not consider that the gun which the deceased had, from the description of it, was entirely safe even when prudently handled. The string spoken of as tied around the broken hammer is suggestive of danger when the gun was thoughtlessly taken up for any purpose. The theory of suicide is not the only one to be inferred from the testimony.” Boynton v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc., 105 La. 202 (52 L. R. A. 687).
See also Kornig v. Western L. Ind. Co., 102 Minn. 31; Cosmopolitan-Life Ins. Co. v. Koegel, 104 Va. 619, 633.
The attitude of this court with reference to the strength of the presumption against suicide is shown in the Stephenson case, from which we" hereinbefore quoted. There, the insured had been confined in an asylum for the insane. He was permitted to go home, accompanied by a friend. He then obtained a revolver, with the avowed intention of shooting the sheriff, should that officer attempt to take him back to the asylum. Coming home with the weapon, instead of going into the house, he passed into the bam, and very quickly a shot was heard. His friends, going to the barn, found him on his back, his-hand extended, grasping the revolver; and near the center of the forehead, a fatal bullet wound. There, as here, the company asserted it was a plain case of suicide; but we held that the question was one for the jury. Tackman v. Brotherhood, 132 Iowa 64, is another case where we held the presumption to be sufficient to take the issue to the jury, even though there was, admittedly, much evidence tending to support the theory of suicide. The same is true of the case of Van Norman v. Modern Brotherhood, 143 Iowa 536.
Appellee quotes with some reliance language used by Field, J., in Insurance Co. v. Newton, 89 U. S. 32 (22 L. Ed. 793). In the first quotation made, the court was not speaking of any admission made by the plaintiff, but of an admission by the company, which the plaintiff claimed was made in acknowledging the receipt of the proofs of loss. The other language referred to — that the proofs were intended for the action of the company and the company could rightfully rely thereon as true, and that, “unless corrected for mistake, the insured was bound by them,” — is perhaps, standing alone, and without the aid of light from a multitude of other precedents, capable of the construction put upon it by counsel. But the official headnote to the decision, prepared by Justice Field himself, shows his own construction of the decision to be simply that the proofs are ‘1 admissible as prima-facie evidence of the facts stated therein, against the insured. ’ ’ Since that decision was made, the same court has had repeated oeca
“It is contended for the defendant that, because of the contents of the proofs of death, the plaintiff is estopped from claiming that Hall’s death was caused otherwise than by. suicide, and that, at least, the court should have held that the burden originally 'upon the defendant was shifted, by the introduction of the proofs of death, to the plaintiff, and it became her duty to satisfy the jury, by a preponderance of evidence that Hall died otherwise than by his own hand. But the defendant was not prejudiced by the statements and opinions in the proofs of death, and the plaintiff was not estopped thereby, as a matter of law. ’ ’
In Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Ward, 140 U. S. 76 (35 L. Ed. 371), the defense was that the policy had been forfeited by the intemperate habits of the insured, and the physician’s certificate of death furnished to the company fairly showed the fact; but the court sustained an instruction to the jury that “this certificate is not to be taken ... by you as conclusive evidence of the facts therein stated, nor is the plaintiff bound by this statement or estopped from proving to your satisfaction a different cause of death.
In Supreme Lodge v. Beck, 181 U. S. 49 (45 L. Ed. 741), the defense, as here, was suicide of the insured, and there the plaintiff in her proofs had answered the question as to cause of death by the single and unqualified word, “Suicide.” Much of the evidence on the trial strongly tended to establish such fact. The trial court, refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant, told the jury that the plaintiff’s statements in the proofs of loss did not estop her; that she could
The burden of proof in this case never passed or shifted from the defendant to the plaintiff. If plaintiff had rested her case in chief on the bare showing or concession that Michalek was dead and died insured by the policy in suit, and the defendant had responded by identifying and putting in evidence the plaintiff’s admissions in the .proofs of loss and its other evidence, if any, pointing to suicide, and plain.tiff had offered no rebuttal, the question would then have fairly presented itself whether there was any issue of fact for the jury. With the eyidence in that condition, we may, for the purposes of this case, admit that the burden, not of proof, but of going ahead with other evidence, if any she had, was then upon the plaintiff.. This view she accepted, and did proceed to strengthen the ordinary presumption against suicide by proof of many circumstances which are universally admitted as tending to negative suicidal purpose or intent, and still other evidence to explain and rebut the admissions found in the proofs of loss, and to support the view that, upon the record as a whole, suicide is not shown by that clear degree of certainty which is necessary to exclude every reasonable theory of accidental death.
Can the court assume to say that all this evidence and all these circumstances developed on the part of plaintiff in rebuttal of the defendant’s affirmative defense are of no value, and the jury shall not be permitted to consider them? We think not; and, of the innumerable insurance cases found
The foregoing sufficiently indicates our views upon the legal propositions presented by counsel. They - manifestly require a reversal of the judgment below, and the cause will be remanded for a new trial in harmony with the views herein expressed. — Reversed.