Scott v. Pennsylvania Casualty Co.

Citations

• 240 Pa. 341
• 87 A. 963
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 675

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Accident insurance — Warranty —• Occupation — Change of occupation — More hazardous employment — Tender— Charge of court.</p> <p>1. Where the insured in a policy of accident insurance-warrants his occupation as “business manager of store, office, work, and business manager in general, not doing manual labor,” and the policy provides that if the insured is injured after having changed his occupation to one classified by the company as more hazardous, or “is injured while doing any act or thing pertaining to any more hazardous occupation,” the company shall be liable for a proportionately less amount, and it appears that the insured was killed as the result of a fall from a coal breaker, and the evidence for the plaintiff, although contradicted, tends to show that'?' the insured was simply paying men engaged in dismantling the breaker which had been purchased by his employer, the store company, and the evidence for the defendant tends to show that the insured at the time of the accident was engaged in carrying on coal operations either for himself or his employer, the case is for the jury to determine, under proper instructions, whether at the time the insured was injured he had changed his occupation, or was doing an act pertaining to an occupation more hazardous than . that for which he was insured.</p> <p>2. In such a case where it is admitted that the defendant owed the plaintiff part at least of the sum claimed it is not error for the court to refuse to instruct the jury that plaintiff’s claim must be for the amount of the policy less the sum admitted to be due, on the ground that the latter sum had been tendered to and refused by the plaintiff, since the only effect of such tender would be that in the event that there was a recovery for any more than the sum tendered the plaintiff would not be entitled to costs accruing after the tender was made.</p> <p>3. In such a case it is. not error for the court to exclude an answer to the question: “Taking