98 So. 62 | Miss. | 1923
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellee, Noradolph Hunt, ■ a minor, by her next friend and guardian, W. H. Hunt, brought this suit in the circuit court of Harrison county against appellant, Sovereign , Camp, Woodmen of the World, for the amount of the face of an insurance policy on the life of-her father for her benefit, issued by appellant, and recovered a judgment for the amount sued for, from which appellant prosecutes this appeal.
On the other hand, appellee contends, and the case was tried in the court below on the correctness of that theory, that if the insured was insane he was’ incapable of violating the laws of the state, and therefore it could not be said that he lost his life as a consequence thereof; that the phrase “sane or insane” is mere surplusage and amounts to nothing.
We know of no cases directly in point on this question. We are referred to none. However1, by analogy it appears that the question has been settled by the courts in favor of appellant Js contention. Tt was generally held by the courts that a stipulation in a policy by which the in
The stipulation in the policy involved recognizes that one cannot violate the laws of his country if he be insane, and undertakes to meet that identical condition by providing that, if the insured commit an act that would be a violation of the laws of the state if he were sane, it shall void the policy even though he he insane. "Why should not the insurer and insured so contract1? We see no reason to the contrary. We therefore hold that the clause in question means that the policy shall be avoided if the insured lose his life in consequence of committing an act although he be insane, if such act, were he sane, would be a violation of the laws of the state.
Reversed, and judgment here for appellant.
Reversed.