Pickett v. Pacific M. L. Ins.

Citations

• 144 Pa. 79
• 22 A. 871
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 583

Syllabus

<p>(а) A policy of insurance was issued in $5,000, to be paid after satisfactory proof that the assured had “ sustained such violent and accidental injuries as shall externally be visible upon his person, and which alone shall have caused his death within ninety days of the date of such accident; ”</p> <p>(б) With the following condition: “ This insurance shall not cover.... death or injury resulting from or attributable partially or wholly to any of the following causes: Disease or bodily infirmity,.....fits, .....intoxication,.....medical or surgical treatment, . . . . taking of poison.....inhalation of gas.”</p> <p>(c) The evening- of the day the policy was issued, the insured, in good health, went down into a well at a house where he was boarding, to make repairs to a pump, and in a short time was found in the well dead, from asphyxia resulting from the inhalation of poisonous gas at the bottom of the well:</p> <p>1. The death was by external, violent and accidental means, within the insurance. The condition against “ inhalation of gas” contemplated a voluntary and intelligent act by the insured, not an involuntary and unconscious act, and was inoperative to relieve the company from liability: Paul v. Insurance Co., 112 N. Y. 472, followed; Pollock v. Accident Ass’n, 102 Pa. 230, distinguished.</p> <p>2. It was not error for the court below, on the offer of the insured, to admit the policy of insurance in evidence, overruling the objection that it was not accompanied or proposed to be accompanied by the application, as required by the act of May 11, 1881, P. L. 20.* Said act is applicable in the case of an accident policy.</p> <p>3. Where, under objection and exception to the plaintiff, the court erroneously permitted the defendant company to read in evidence the application, not attached to the policy as required by said act, points presented by defendant predicated of the evidence thus admitted will not be considered by the Supreme Court.</p>