Continental Casualty Co. v. Chase

203 S.W. 779, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 497
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 17, 1918
DocketNo. 7567.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 203 S.W. 779 (Continental Casualty Co. v. Chase) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Continental Casualty Co. v. Chase, 203 S.W. 779, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 497 (Tex. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

LANE, J.

This suit ivas brought by ap-pellee, Fred W. Chase, against appellant, Continental Casualty Company, to recover under a certain policy of insurance issued by appellant to appellee, which, among other things, contains the following:

“In consideration of the warranties and agreements contained in the application here-for and the payments of premium as therein-provided, .does on this 2d day of December, A. D. 1907, hereby insure Mr. Fred W. Chase-(herein called the insured), in class Ord. of the-company, ás a teamster and contractor in the-principal sum of five thousand dollars, with weekly indemnity of twenty-five dollars, and subject to the conditions hereinafter specified promises to pay to the insured or to his beneficiary, Mrs. Carrie A. Chase, his wife, indemnity as scheduled below, in the event that said insured, while -this policy is in force, shall receive personal bodily injury, which is effected directly and independently of all other causes through external, violent and purely accidental means (suicide, sane or insane, not included), and which causes at once total and continuous inability to engage in any labor or occupation, and provided that neither such injury nor inability is in consequence of nor contributed to by .any bodily or mental defect, disease or infirmity of the insured. * * *
“Part II. Weekly Indemnity. For Loss of Time.
“If such injury shall not result in any of the losses scheduled in part I, the company will pay said weekly indemnity for total loss of time necessarily resulting from injury as-before described, for such period, not exceeding fifty-two consecutive weeks, as the insured shall be under the treatment of a legally qualified' physician or surgeon by reason of such injury.
“Part III. Special Indemnities.
“In any of the losses covered by this policy and specified in parts I or II, (1) where the accidental injury causing the loss results from voluntary exposure to unnecessary danger or obvious risk of injury, or from the intentional act of the insured or of any other person (assaults committed upon the insured for the sole purpose of burglary or robbery excepted); (2) where the accidental injury causing the loss, results from or is received while - quarreling,, fighting or violating the law — then and in all cases referred to in this part III, the amount payable shall be one-tenth of the amount which otherwise would be payable under this policy, anything in this policy to the contrary notwithstanding, and subject otherwise to all the conditions in this policy contained.”

Appellee alleged in his petition:

“That on or about said July 3, 1914, plaintiff accidentally fall off a large float or dray then-in motion, in said county of Galveston, Tex., and that the wheels of said vehicle ran over him, causing him to be badly injured in his head, back and all over his body and limbs, and causing him to be severely injured in his-body, head, neck, back, arms, spine, back and' limbs and causing 1pm to be confined to his bed' for- more than three months and causing him to be totally incapacitated and unable to perform. any part of his duties and work for a period of tliirty-nine weeks from the date of said' injuries. That the contract of insurance issued to the plaintiff by the defendant provided that in the event the plaintiff suffered and sustained injuries b,y accident, that it would pay to plaintiff the sum of $25 per week during such time as the plaintiff was totally and wholly incapacitated from performing all of his duties. • That by reason of the matters alleged the Continental Casualty Company became indebted to him and promised by said contract of insurance to pay to him the sum of $25- per *780 week from said July 3, 1914, up to and including the week ending October 12, 1914, said weekly indemnity, as specified in said contract of insurance, amounting to the total sum of $975.”

Appellant, the casualty company, answered by general denial and special plea as follows:

“That by the contract of insurance between plaintiff and defendant ‘where the accidental injury causing the loss results from voluntary exposure to unnecessary danger or obvious risk of injury, or from the intentional act of the insured or any other person (assaults committed upon the insured for the sole purpose of burglary or robbery excepted), or from the insanity of the insured or any other person, or from voluntary overexertion on the part of the insured; or (2) where the accidental injury causing the loss results from or is received while quarreling, fighting or violating the law, then and in all cases referred to in this part XI, the amount payable shall be one-tenth of the amount which otherwise would be payable under this policy, anything in this policy to the contrary notwithstanding, and subject to all the conditions in this policy contained.’ And defendant alleges that the injury causing the loss, as defendant is informed, believes, and avers, resulted from and were received while plaintiff was quarreling, fighting, and violating the law, and from voluntary exposure to unnecessary danger and obvious risk of injury, and from the intention of a person named J. W. Bracken, as defendant is informed; that plaintiff attacked and struck said Bracken from behind with a heavy piece of wood or iron whilst the latter was driving a float, and thereby engaged in lighting and quarreling with the said Bracken and in violation of law, on said float while it was moving, and thereby exposed himself to unnecessary danger and obvious risk of injury, and he (said plaintiff) was knocked, pushed, or thrown by said Bracken, and his head was injured or skull fractured, and he was severely beaten by said Bracken with the piece of wood or iron with which the plaintiff assaulted the said Bracken, and which said Bracken took away from the plaintiff in the fight that plaintiff started, and thrown off the float onto the hard street or pavement, bruising and injuring plaintiff, and if plaintiff was run over by the float, and if he was injured thereby, such injury was only a pai’t of the injuries received by him, and all the injuries received by plaintiff whilst violating the law by fighting were intentionally inflicted on him by the party whom he attacked on the moving float, and with whom he was fighting on the moving float, and in violation and in disregard of his contract with this defendant and the terms of the contract, and thereby plaintiff is not entitled to recover more than one-tenth of the amount which otherwise would be payable under the terms of this policy in the event of any liability by defendant for such injuries.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
203 S.W. 779, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/continental-casualty-co-v-chase-texapp-1918.