(Aftеr stating the foregoing facts.) The evidence demanded a finding on the following facts: The insured had operated a store in Toccoa, Georgia, for many years. In March, 1940, because of bad health, he sold the store, and was greatly depressed about having to give up his business and about his physical and mental condition.' Whilе he was conducting said business he lived at the hotel in Toccoa and roomed with a friend, W. B. Jones. After selling out the business, he moved to Fairburn, Georgia, and lived with said Jones and Jones’s wife from March, 1940, until October, 1940. During that time he was greatly distressed and despondent about his health and having nothing to do. In October, 1940, being a veteran of the first World War, he went to the "Veterans Hospital No. 48, .in Atlanta, where he remained until January, 1941, when he returned to Toccoa. In the spring of 1941, his condition improved; but in June of that yеar it began to worsen, and he again grew despondent about his future. For sometime he had been engaged to marry Miss Beba Lawson, of Gainesville, Georgia, who taught school in Toccoa. She visited him regularly while he was living with the Joneses and while he was in the hospital. When he returned to Toccoa, she saw him almost every dаy. He wanted to marry her, but was unwilling to do so on account of his health and his inability to support her. He was divorced from his wife several years before his death, and she and his daughter (the plaintiff in this case) lived together in Toceoa. On Sunday, August 10, 1941, he telephoned Miss Lawson (who was then in Gainesville on vacation) and told her he was sick, and asked her to come to Toccoa to see him. She went to Toccoa and spent the day with him, and on that visit he told her he wanted to go to Atlantа to see a doctor. He was so distressed and despondent that she brought him back to her home in Gaines-ville. On the next day she drove him to Atlanta to consult Dr. W. W. Young, a sрecialist in psychiatry and neurology. Dr. Young’s examination disclosed that the insured was in a very serious condition — that he was depressed, with a general attitude of hopelessness, and with a great amount of worry over his condition. The doctor advised hospital care for his adequate treatment and *785 protection. He made an appointment at the time to see Dr. Young again on August 14 (the day before his death), but failed to keep it. He and Miss Lawson returned to her home in Gaines-ville, and he became more depressed and despondent. On several occasions on the day of his death and on the day before, he said: “I can’t keеp on staying here; I don’t feel like I can go back to Toccoa; and I don’t know what I am going to do.” And, at several other times, while he was at Miss Lawson’s home, during thе two or three days preceding his death, he said: “Something has got to be done for me, or else.” Miss Lawson and her family tried to cheer him up, but failed to do so. On the dаy of the insured’s death, Carl Lawson, a brother of Miss Eeba Lawson, went bird-hunting with a short-barreled twelve-guage double-barreled shotgun. He and the insured slept in the same room оn this visit of the insured. Lawson returned from hunting about noon, and put the gun on his bed, with some of the cartridges which he had taken from his pocket. He left the gun unloaded, and went to a baseball game. Later that afternoon, Eeba Lawson drove her mother to a doctor’s office. She left the insured in a swing on the front porch. When she returned in about thirty minutеs, he was not on the porch. She looked for him in the house, but failed to find him. She went to the back part of the house and called him and then heard a shot in the basеment.' The only entrance to the basement was from the outside of the rear of the house. She looked through the basement window and saw that the insured had shot off thе top of his head. She telephoned members of her family who called a doctor, the coroner, and the undertaker. The coroner’s jury found that death was caused by gunshot wounds which were self-inflicted. The body was found in a partly sitting position in an overturned chair, the back of the body being against the back of the chair, аnd the legs hanging over the rungs on the front of the chair. The shotgun (which Carl Lawson had left unloaded on his bed) was found with its barrel leaning on the rungs oí the chair. The muzzle was pointed tоwards the body of the insured. The gun contained one cartridge which had been fired. Powder burns were found on the index finger of the left hand, indicating that the insured had held the muzzle in his lеft hand before firing the gun. The gun was equipped with a safety catch in good working order, and the gun could not be fired by a slight touch on the *786 trigger, even if the safety were oJi, but required some pressure upon the trigger. An imprint of the butt of the gun was on the dirt floor directly in front of the chair. The evidence further showed that a few months before the dеath of the insured, one of his sisters had killed herself with a pistol shot, and that this act had prayed upon his mind. The above-stated evidence was uncontradicted, and mоst of it was given by his dearest friends, Miss Eeba Lawson and Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Jones.
It is admitted in the petition that the insured killed himself by firing a load of shot into his head; but the plaintiff contends that he shot himself accidentally, and relies upon the presumption against suicide. It is true that
“the
presumption against suicide will stand and be decisive until overcome by testimony outweighing it.”
Standard Insurance Co.
v.
Kiker,
45
Ga. App.
706 (
The verdict was contrary to law and the evidence, and the court erred in denying a new trial. As this ruling is controlling in the case, the special grounds of the motion for new trial are not considered.
Judgment reversed.