175 Ind. 563 | Ind. | 1911
Suit by appellee, beneficiary in a benefit certificate issued by appellant to one Baldwin, grandson of appellee. The certificate provided that the sum of $1,000 should be paid to appellee in case of Baldwin’s death, unless
Appellant contends that in cases like this, where the sole question is one of suicide, and the evidence is very largely circumstantial, it is highly important that the jury should be instructed, in drawing its inferences from the circumstances proved, to consider the reasonable probability, under all the evidence, of the existence of the facts to be inferred. Appellant’s theory, applied to the issue in this cause, is correct, and if the lower court in other instructions had not substantially covered the ground, the failure here would have been erroneous. But in instruction three, given by the court on its own motion, the jury was instructed that “in determining the credibility of a witness you should determine * * * the probability or improbability of his testimony.” The court gave to the jury instruction four, which was requested by appellant and reads as follows: “You are instructed that the presumption of law against suicide may be overturned, not only by oral testimony, but by reasonable deductions from the facts established; that on this question you are to be governed by what is the reasonable probability, and that the fact of suicide need not be shown
There is no error in the record. Judgment affirmed.