Erb v. Commercial Mutual Accident Co.

Citations

• 232 Pa. 215
• 81 A. 207
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 707

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Accident insurance — Construction—Insured killed in struggle begun by himself.</p> <p>In an action on a policy of accident insurance providing an indemnity “against bodily injuries effected directly and independently of all other causes, through external, violent and accidental means” a recovery should be permitted when it appears that the insured was killed by shots from a pistol in the hands of his sister-in-law, with whom he was on hostile terms and who had been forbidden his house, that, during a quarrel with his wife in which he had pointed a- revolver at her, the insured had seen his sister-in-law in his residence and advanced towards her pointing the pistol in a threatening manner, that she seized his arm and got possession of the pistol, and when he attempted to regain possession of it, she struck him with it on the head, that she continued to strike at him and the shots were fired as she struck and when the pistol was in motion, that the insured did not point the pistol at his sister-in-law with the intention to injure her but to force her to leave the house, that he had no occasion to anticipate danger when he began the assault, that he continued the struggle after he had lost the pistol to prevent its use against himself, and that he had withdrawn from the conflict when he received the fatal wound.</p>