Berliner v. Travelers' Insurance Co.

53 P. 918, 121 Cal. 458, 1898 Cal. LEXIS 932
California Supreme Court·Decided July 18, 1898·No. S. F. No. 1048·Published·Cited by 19 cases

Opinion

HAYNES, C.

Action upon a policy insuring George Berliner, the husband of plaintiff, against death caused by accident. At the conclusion of plaintiff’s evidence defendant moved for a nonsuit, the motion was granted, and from the judgment entered thereon the plaintiff appeals.

Said policy insured said Berliner against loss of time resulting from bodily injuries effected through external, violent and accidental means, and classifies the injuries and the compensation for loss of time. It then provides: “e. Or if death results from such injuries alone within ninety days, will pay ten thousand dollars to Mary I. Berliner, his wife, if surviving; in event of her prior death, to the legal representatives or assigns of insured, f. If such injuries are sustained while riding as a passenger in any passenger conveyance using steam, cable, or electricity as a motive power, the amount to be paid shall be double the sum above specified. Provided: If insured is injured in any occupation or exposure classed by this company as more hazardous than that here given (that of mining expert), his insurance shall only be for such sums as the premium paid by him will purchase at the rates fixed for such increased hazard.”

The policy then proceeds to qualify its liability by specifying what is not covered by it as follows:

“This insurance does not cover disappearance, .... nor accident nor death, .... resulting wholly or partly, directly or indirectly, from any of the following causes, or while so engaged or affected: Disease or bodily infirmity, . . . . ; violating law; voluntary exposure to unnecessary danger; . . . . ; entering or trying to enter or leave a moving conveyance using steam as a motive power (except cable and electric street cars), being in or on any such conveyance not provided for transportation of passengers, or on a railway bridge or roadbed (railway employees excepted).”

The insured received injuries in a railway accident in Mexico, from which he died four days afterward. The only evidence as to the circumstances connected with the accident was the testimony of S. W. Ferguson, who accompanied Mr. Berliner to Mexico and' was traveling with him at the time of the accident.

The witness and Mr. Berliner were invited by the superintendent of the railway to go from the city of Mexico to Puebla [460]*460and return. Mr. Cokefield, superintendent of motive power- on that road, an old acquaintance of Mr. Berliner, was with the party. On the return trip the train consisted of a locomotive, a baggage car and three or four passenger ears, and the superintendent’s car, which was at the rear end of the train. While at a station Mr. Cokefield invited Mr. Berliner to go with him to the engine that he might better see the country, and they started toward the engine, and the witness returned to the superintendent’s car. In going down the grade the train acquired a great velocity, and, leaving the track, was wrecked. The engineer, fireman, and conductor were killed, and he thought about a half dozen of the passengers. He found Mr. Berliner in the wreck of the engine, near the firebox, and burned by escaping steam, and believed Berliner was on the engine at the time of the accident. On cross-examination he testified that he advised Mr. Berliner not to go on the engine, that he would get his clothes dirty, that he could see as well from the car, and that he thought it was not a safe place, but that he might or might not have used the word “safe,” that the conversation was jocular, but he desired to detain him.

The foregoing is the substance of the testimony relating to the accident.

The ground of the motion for a nonsuit was: "That the contract itself did not provide for the death of a party by an accident while riding upon a locomotive, but only in a conveyance intended for passengers.”

Assuming that Mr. Berliner was upon the engine at the time of the accident, and we think the court might properly find that he was, defendant’s contention is that Mr. Berliner was at the time of the accident on "a conveyance not provided for the transportation of passengers,” and that therefore the defendant is not liable; while appellant contends that the train on which the insured was riding was a regular passenger train composed of a locomotive and cars, and formed a conveyance for the transportation of passengers, and that the policy did not exclude him from any part of it.

It is well settled that policies of insurance should be liberally construed in favor of the insured; that where its terms permit of more than one construction that will be adopted which sup[461]*461ports its validity. In Equitable etc. Ins. Co. v. Osborn, 90 Ala. 201, 207, it was said: Exceptions of this kind are construed most strongly against the insurer, and liberally in favor of the insured. This is now the settled rule for construing all kinds of insurance policies, rendered necessary, especially in modern times, to circumvent the ingenuity of insurance companies in so framing contracts of this kind as to make the exceptions unfairly devour the whole policy.”

In Accident Ins. Co. v. Crandall, 120 U. S. 527, it was held that “a policy of insurance against “bodily injuries, effected through external, accidental, and violent means,’ and occasioning death or complete disability to do business, and providing that “this insurance shall not extend to death or disability which may have been caused wholly or in part by bodily infirmities or disease, or by suicide, or self-inflicted injuries,’ covers a death by hanging one’s self while insane.” It was there said that “the insane suicide no more dies by his own hand than the suicide by mistake or accident”; and that the words ‘“bodily infirmities or disease” do not include insanity, and that it is “the fundamental rule of interpretation that policies of insurance are to be construed most strongly against the insurers who frame them.’’ To this we may add that the general rule is that exceptions and conditions are to be construed strictly against the party in whose favor they are made.

In a New York case it was said: “It has become a rule of law that if it be left in doubt whether words of the contract were used in an enlarged or restricted sense, other things being equal, the construction will be adopted which is most beneficial to the promisee.” (Darrow v. Family Fund Soc., 116 N. Y. 537; 15 Am. St. Rep. 430.)

In Healey v. Mutual etc. Assn., 133 Ill. 556, 23 Am. St. Rep. 637, it was held that a death caused by accidentally taking and drinking poison is a death produced by bodily injuries received through external, violent, and accidental means.

Many other cases might be cited illustrating and applying the rule of construction above stated, but the rule is so well settled that we deem it unnecessary.

The policy here in question, though of a preferred class, was "not special, covering only accidents to the insured while en[462]*462gaged in a designated employment, pursuit, occupation, or situation, but covered any possible accident which might happen to any one under any or all circumstances, provided it did not fall within an exception expressed in the policy.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Berliner v. Travelers' Insurance Co., 53 P. 918, 121 Cal. 458, 1898 Cal. LEXIS 932 (Cal. 1898).

53 P. 918 (Berliner v. Travelers' Insurance Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Ashley v. American Mutual Liability Insurance Co.
167 F. Supp. 125 (N.D. California, 1958)
Olson v. Standard Marine Ins. Co., Ltd.
240 P.2d 379 (California Court of Appeal, 1952)
Pendell v. Westland Life Insurance
214 P.2d 392 (California Court of Appeal, 1950)
Trinity Universal Ins. Co. v. De Martini
118 S.W.2d 901 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Indemnity Ins. v. Sloan
68 F.2d 222 (Fourth Circuit, 1934)
Sloan v. Indemnity Ins. Co. of North America
4 F. Supp. 148 (D. Maryland, 1933)
See v. North American Accident Insurance
213 P. 42 (California Supreme Court, 1923)
Ogilvie v. Aetna Life Insurance Co.
209 P. 26 (California Supreme Court, 1922)
Ebeling v. Bankers' Casualty Co.
201 P. 284 (Montana Supreme Court, 1921)
Faris v. American National Assurance Co.
185 P. 1035 (California Court of Appeal, 1919)
State ex rel. Schmohl v. Ellison
182 S.W. 740 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1916)
Standard Accident Ins. Co. of Detroit, Mich. v. Hite
1913 OK 298 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1913)
McCarthy v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. of California
178 Ill. App. 502 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1913)
American Fidelity Co. v. Patty
19 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 392 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1913)
Pacific Union Club v. Commercial Union Assurance Co.
107 P. 728 (California Court of Appeal, 1910)
Thorne v. Casualty Co. of America
76 A. 1106 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1909)
McEvoy v. Security Fire Insurance
73 A. 157 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1909)
Travelers' Insurance v. Austin
59 L.R.A. 107 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1902)