83 Mo. App. 442 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1900
It is conceded that the defendant, a corporate entity, by the certificate upon which this action was brought, promised to pay the plaintiffs, the beneficiaries therein named, the sum of two thousand dollars upon due notice and satisfactory proof of the death of ther assured, unless “death shall result by self destruction, whether sane or insane, voluntarily or involuntarily, or if death is caused or superinduced by drunkenness, or by the use of narcotics or opiates,” etc., “then the amount to be paid upon such member’s certificate shall be a sum only in proportion to the whole amount as the matured life expectancy is to the entire expectancy at the date of admission to the endowment rank.”' The defense pleaded in the defendant’s answer was that the death of the assured was caused or superinduced “by the use of narcotics or opiates.”
The substance of the evidence adduced at the trial was to the effect that the assured died from the effects of an overdose of morphine; that in 1893, while in the state of Texas, he suffered a sunstroke, and that while there he used morphine, under the advice of a physician, to allay pain in the head; that at and for some time prior to his death he had a sore leg which gave him considerable trouble and required the treatment of a physician; that he was confined to his bed for the
The theory upon which.the ease was by the court submitted to the jury for the plaintiffs, as appears from the first instruction given for them, was that, even though the death of the assured was caused by his voluntarily taking of morphine shortly preceding his death, still this did not exempt defendant from liability if it was found by the jury, from all the facts and circumstances in evidence, that the assured was at the time of taking the morphine suffering from a sore leg, or from other physical ailment, and took said morphine solely to lessen his pain and suffering and in so doing unintentionally and accidentally took an overdose or excessive quantity which caused his death. It is contended by the defendant that this instruction was erroneous and harmful in expression. The point thus presented for our consideration is, whether or not the exception contained in the certificate already quoted includes a case where the assured is suffering from a physical ailment and takes morphine solely to lessen his pain and in doing so unintentionally and accidentally takes an excessive quantity which causes his death ?
Undoubtedly, parties to a benefit certificate' of insurance have the right to make their own agreement to pay indemnity on the.event of the death of the assured without reference to the cause -thereof or to stipulate that if death result from certain specified causes there shall be no liability. A contract of insurance should be construed by the same rules that govern the interpretation of other contracts, the object being to ascertain the meaning and intention of the parties, which must be gathered from the whole instrument in the light of
The policy is the law of the legal relations of the parties by which their mutual rights and liabilities are to be measured. Weisenberger v. Ins. Co., 56 Pa. St. 422. Conditions and provisions in policies are to be construed strictly against the' company as they tend to narrow the range and limit the force of the principal obligation. Conditions providing for disabilities and forfeitures are to receive, where the intent is doubtful, a strict construction against those for whose benefit they are introduced;
The case of McGlother v. Ins. Co., 89 Fed. Rep. 685, was where the assured, who was a doctor, had died from poison unintentionally, voluntarily and unconsciously taken without knowing it was poison and in the belief that it was harmless medicine which had been prescribed by him as a drink for his patients. The insurance was against death by accidental means. There was a condition in the policy that it should not cover or extend to death from poison. It was held that whether the poison was taken consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or involuntarily, intentionally or unintentionally, with or without knowledge, that the death was nevertheless caused by poison and that therefore the death of the insured fell within the exception. The question here presented did not arise in that case.
In Davey v. Ins. Co., 132 U. S. 739, where it is said that the insurer undertook to protect itself against the improper use in the future by the insured of alcoholic stimulants and to 'that end it provided in the policy that if the assured
¥e are further justified in placing this construction in the exemption clause of the policy by the rule which is, in substance, that where the insurer tenders a policy to a party seeking insurance and uses in the policy ambiguous words, these words will be held to have the meaning most favorable to the insured, as the presumption is that on this construction he took the policy. It is elemental that if a contract of insurance is capable of two meanings, that meaning must be adopted which is most favorable to the insured. Wharton on Contr., sec. 670; Bliss on Ins., sec. 385; Cook on Ins., sec. 4. And so we have declared it to be a rule of construction in cases where there is a doubt in respect to the meaning of the terms of a clause in an insurance policy that the doubt must be resolved in favor of the interpretation of the assured, although intended otherwise by the insurer. Hale v. Ins. Co., 46 Mo. App. 509; La Force v. Ins. Co., 43 Mo. App. 530; Hoffman v. Ins. Co., 56 Mo. App. 301. If the insured took the morphine solely to lessen the pain which he was then suffering, or by the advice of a physician he certainly did not take it with suicidal intent. If he took it under either of these conditions the law will imply that the taking of the overdose was accidental and unintentional. It was not neces
Their second, in substance, told the jury that if it found for plaintiff under the preceding instruction and against the defense pleaded, that is to say, that the death of the insured was caused by the use of narcotics or opiates, to assess the damages at, etc. This was no more than telling the jury that if the death of the insured was caused under the conditions stated in the latter part of the plaintiffs’ first instruction, that then the death of the insured was not caused by a narcotic or opiate within the meaning of the exception contained in the policy. The instruction is quite awkward in expression and is justly subject to criticism on that account. ¥e can not discover that this was prejudicial to the defendant on the merits.
It follows that if we are correct in the construction placed by us on the language of the exemption clause of the policy, that the instructions given for plaintiffs were substantially correct and those refused for defendant were incorrect. The evidence was, in many material respects, quite scant; yet, we can not say that it was insufficient to warrant a submission of the issues to the jury.
The judgment will be affirmed.