170 A. 396 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1933
Argued December 14, 1933. Robert J. Westbrook, husband of Mary C. Westbrook, the plaintiff appellant, was at the time of his death, insured in the Continental Life Insurance Company of St. Louis, Missouri. While he and another were sawing an oak tree, a log accidently rolled against Westbrook's right leg and produced a small cut which bled a little. The injury was inside his shoe top and just above the ankle. It was about an eighth of an inch broad and an inch across. The wife describes it as a "small cut about the size of a dime, sort of circle, not perfectly round but quite like a crescent." Through this abrasion, germs found entrance *565 through the abrasion and the leg became inflamed and infected and death finally resulted, the cause of death being streptococci septicemia.
The present suit is brought to recover in addition to the amount heretofore paid under the policy, the sum of $2,500 by reason of provisions of a rider attached to the policy which afforded double indemnity benefits for accidental death. The language employed provides: "The company agrees to pay five thousand dollars which is double the face amount of the aforesaid policy and in lieu thereof, to the beneficiary named therein, in event of the accidental death of the insured as hereinafter defined ...... except that this double indemnity benefit shall not be payable if the insured's death shall result directly or indirectly, wholly or partly from suicide, whether sane or insane, from poisoning, infection or any kind of illness or disease, or from bodily injuries received while engaged in military or naval service or from participating in aeronautics or submarine operations."
If death resulted directly or indirectly, wholly or in part from an infection of any kind, the company is not liable. The appellant argues that the cause of death was the accident suffered by the log striking the leg and that the blood poisoning which resulted was merely an incident and an effect of the accident; that the abrasion on the skin set in motion a train of events which brought about the result. In the solution of the problem, we must consider the clause in its ordinary sense. The scratch on the leg did not alone cause insured's death. The doctor testified that the "immediate cause of death was streptococci septicemia due to the injury." "The cut did not cause his death."
It is obvious that the death resulted "directly or indirectly, wholly or partly" from the infection. The court below found no ambiguity in this language and felt it to be its duty to construe it to mean just what it said, citing Levinton v. Ohio Farmers Ins. Co., *566
The insured's death resulted "directly or indirectly, wholly or partly" from infection and the double indemnity clause of the policy having excluded a death due to such cause, there can be no recovery under it.
The judgment is affirmed. *567