Bedwell v. Automobile Owners Ass'n

127 So. 2d 432, 240 Miss. 312, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 463
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 27, 1961
DocketNo. 41666
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 127 So. 2d 432 (Bedwell v. Automobile Owners Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bedwell v. Automobile Owners Ass'n, 127 So. 2d 432, 240 Miss. 312, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 463 (Mich. 1961).

Opinion

Rodgers, J.

This suit was instituted in the Circuit Court of Marion County to recover from the appellee, the Automobile Owners Association Insurance Company, on a contract of insurance issued to the appellant under date of June 19, 1958, $150.00 per month for a period of six months. It is alleged that appellant was wholly and continuously disabled and prevented from doing any and every duty pertaining to her business of profession as the result of said injury while the appellant was riding in an automobile. The appellant offered evidence to establish her [314]*314claim. When she had rested her case, the Insurance Company rested without introducing any evidence. The court granted the defendant Insurance Company an instruction directing the “jury to find for the defendant.” The plaintiff, appellant here, did not request a directed verdict; in fact, none of the appellant’s instructions were marked “refused”. The circuit Judge then granted a judgment for the defendant Insurance Company.

We have reached the conclusion that this case must be reversed, and will therefore refrain from developing the facts introduced in evidence. We are of the opinion that the plaintiff below, appellant here, made out a prima facie case, and under the state of the record at that point, the insurer was bound to rebut the testimony offered by appellant. 29A Am. Jur., Insurance, Section 1941, page 995.

The pertinent provisions of the policy sued upon are: First, the insurance clause, identified as Part One of the policy appearing on the first page thereof, is as follows: “Against loss from accidental bodily injury sustained while driving or riding within any automobile, truck or bus for business or pleasure during the term of this policy, provided such bodily injuries are caused solely by reason of an automobile, truck or bus accident. ’ ’

And second, the clause which appears as Part Three of said policy, on page 1, being captioned Total Confinement Benefits for Life — Automobile Accidents, and which reads as follows: “If ‘Such Injury’ as described in the insuring clause, and not hereinafter excepted or for which indemnity is provided in Part Two shall immediately after accident wholly and continuously disable and prevent the insured from performing any and every duty pertaining to any business or occupation, and as the result thereof is thereby necessarily confined within doors and requires regular visits therein by a legally licensed medical or osteopathic physician or surgeon, the [315]*315Company will pay for any one accident an indemnity for one day or more at the rate of One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00) per month, payments to be made periodically at weekly intervals; such weekly indemnity to be computed at one fourth of the monthly indemnity with payments to continue even for life, so long as such disability and confinement continues.”

The appellee says in its brief: “The issue of the case is simply one of whether the alleged accident and alleged injury sustained thereby are shown to be such as to come within the insuring and compensating provisions of the policy sued upon.”

There can be little question from the evidence that the accident and injury was sustained while the insured was “riding within an automobile” and “such bodily injuries” were “caused solely by reason of an automobile accident”. We move therefore to the real question at issue, that is to say: Was the appellant “immediately after the accident wholly and continuously disabled” and prevented “from performing any and every duty pertaining to any business or occupation, and as a result thereof is thereby necessarily confined within doors and requires regular visits therein by a legally licensed medical or osteopathic physician”?

The testimony of the appellant showed that she was confined within doors, most of the time on her bed, and was wholly incapacitated, with the exception that she visited her doctor, at his direction, for treatment, and sometimes got out to go in the drug store, or grocery store, on her way back home. It is said she might have gone out in the yard on one or two occasions, because her doctor required her to exercise as a part of her treatment. Does this activity preclude and prevent her recovery under the terms of the policy? We think not.

In Appleman’s Insurance Law and Practice, Yol. 1, page 822, it is said: “It is sufficient for the insured to call at the doctor’s office, rather than having him call [316]*316at the home, regardless of the requirement that the insured be ‘attended in his home’.” Citing, Mutual Benefit Health & Accident Ass’n. v. Bunting, 1938, 133 Fla. 646, 183 So. 321. Again, Section 653, page 811 of the same book, says: “The mere fact that the insured goes to the office of his attending physician for treatment and consultation, although this requires him to be physically outside his house, has been held not to constitute a breach of the requirement that the insured be continuously confined within his house. This is particularly true where the policy requires the consultation with or attendance by a physician. The theory is, as previously indicated, that it is the character and extent of the illness which is important rather than an exact limitation on the insured’s activity.

“The courts have gone rather far in this respect, permitting recovery even where the insured has traveled long distances for medical advice and treatment.

“A similar result has usually obtained where the insured leaves the house occasionally for a short walk, this usually being shown to be for the purpose of obtaining sunshine and fresh air at the direction of the attending physician. It need not necessarily be shown, however, that such short excursions were for the purpose of benefiting health.”

We find a good brief of cases listed in Old Volume 29 Am. Jur., page 883, Section 1171, which is as follows: “While some courts have given a literal construction to a requirement that the insured be confined to the house, most courts have adopted the view that the provisions of a health or accident policy requiring the insured to be confined to the house do not have to be literally complied with in order to entitle the insured to indemnity. According to these courts, a person may be totally incapacitated and confined to his house within the meaning of a policy although he takes some exercise outdoors or visits his physician, provided he is entirely incapacitated [317]*317for work or business on account of bis injury or illness. It is also generally held or recognized that confinement at a hospital or sanitarium is confinement within a house within the meaning of such a provision.” There are many cases cited under this section, and among them is the Mississippi case of American Life & Accident Insurance Co. v. Nirdlinger, 113 Miss. 74, 73 So. 875, in which this Court held: “A policy providing for indemnity during the time insured is confined to his house by illness entitled him to indemnity, though he leaves the house under his physician’s orders for the purpose of improving his health.” In this case under the facts, however it was shown that the insured visited his store every day, and was not under the evidence continuously confined within the house.

It is the general rule that, a person may be totally, or temporarily incapacitated and confined to his house within the meaning of accident and health policies, although he takes some exercise outdoors or visits his physician, provided he is entirely incapacitated for work or business on account of his illness or injury. American Life Insurance Co. v.

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Boykin v. Physicians Mutual Insurance
682 F. Supp. 887 (S.D. Mississippi, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
127 So. 2d 432, 240 Miss. 312, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bedwell-v-automobile-owners-assn-miss-1961.