General Accident, Fire & Life Assur. Corp. v. Brinn & Jensen Co.

64 F.2d 968, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4277
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 17, 1933
DocketNo. 9586
StatusPublished

This text of 64 F.2d 968 (General Accident, Fire & Life Assur. Corp. v. Brinn & Jensen Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Accident, Fire & Life Assur. Corp. v. Brinn & Jensen Co., 64 F.2d 968, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4277 (8th Cir. 1933).

Opinion

BOOTH, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment on a directed verdict in favor of appellee, plaintiff below, in an action on a policy of accident insurance covering Harry Hamilton Jones, who was vice president and secretary of the plaintiff company. The company was beneficiary under the policy.

Mr. Jones lost his life in the building occupied by bis company on July 3,1929, when a quantity of fireworks, which were in the building, exploded, and the building burned.

The policy of insurance and the application therefor, which was made part of the policy, are, so far as here material, set out in the margin.1

[970]*970The action included a claim for the double indemnity provided in the policy, the complaint, as amended, alleging:

“That, on the 3rd day of July, A. D. 1929, the said Harry Hamilton Jones was accidentally burned to death and died, in a burning building that had been used and occupied by him and his associates as their place of business, and in which said building he was therein at the commencement of the fire, and his death was sustained by reason of the burning of said building.”

The amended answer set up various defenses, among them: (1) False representations by Mr. Jones as to his occupation and the duties thereof; (2) that his death was not caused by the burning of the building but by the explosion of fireworks; (3) that Mr, Jones was injured and lost his life while doing acts and things pertaining to an occupation classified by the insurance company as more hazardous than that stated in thé application and the policy, and that the amount of insurance was, accordingly, reduced to the limit fixed by the insurance company in its manual of classification for such more hazardous occupation.

The reply denied any false representations by the insured; denied that insured, at the time of his death, was engaged in any occupation different from that described in and contemplated by the policy; alleged that the insurance company fully knew the occupation and duties of the insured; that the insurance company had waived any right to contest the policy or the classification of the insured as to occupation and the duties thereof, and was estopped to deny that the classification of insured in the policy was correct.

Some of the facts are not in dispute: that the policy was duly issued and the premiums paid; that the policy was in effect at the time of the death of the insured; that the death was caused by violent, external, accidental means; that the insured was in the building where he met his death at the time the fire started therein.

At the close of all the evidence, the defendant requested the court to instruct the jury that the evidence was insufficient to warrant a finding that said insured came to his death by reason of the burning of the building, and that, therefore, in no event could the verdict exceed the sum of $7,500; also in event this request be refused, that the court instruct the jury that the verdict could not in any event exceed the sum of $7,500 unless the jury should find that the burning of the building was the cause of the death of the insured. These requests were refused.

The defendant also requested the court to instruct the jury that at the time the insured met his death, he was engaged in doing an act or thing pertaining to an occupation classified by the insurance company as more hazardous than the occupation named in the policy, and that, therefore, the verdict could not in any event exceed the sum of $1,000; also in event this instruction was refused, that the court submit to the jury the question whether ox not the insured came to his death while engaged in performing an act or thing pertaining to an occupation classified as more hazardous by the insurance company.

These requests were also refused.

Thereupon, under the direction of the court, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $17,485, and judgment was entered thereon.

Two broad questions axe raised on this appeal: (1) Whether the evidence was conclusive that the insured came to his death by reason of the burning of the building; (2) whether there was substantial evidence which would warrant the jury in finding that the insured, at the time he met his death, was engaged in performing an act or thing pertaining to an occupation classified by the insurance company as more hazardous than the occupation named in the policy and the application.

Cause of Death.

There was evidence tending to show that the plaintiff company was a wholesale paper concern and as a part of its business dealt in fireworks. These fireworks were kept on the fourth floor of the building. On July [971]*9713, 1929, Mr. Jones was on tlie fourth floor in close proximity to the fireworks at the time of the catastrophe. The general layout of the fourth floor is roughly shown on the accompanying sketch found at page 93 of the Transcript. The bins in which the fireworks

were kept were mostly in the south half of the room. They were made of throe-eighths inch lumber. There was a double deck of these bins in each row. The bins opened to the aisle. One of the employees of the firm (Myron Jensen) was working on a set piece of fireworks at about the point marked x. The insured was last seen shortly before the catastrophe at about the point marked y.

William Foil (not an employee), a friend of Jensen who was near him at the time of the catastrophe, testified that Jenson was in the space at the south end of the room and about 5 or 6 feet from the south end; that he was on his knees nailing fireworks on a framework. An employee, Bryson, was about 15 feet back from Jensen but in the same aisle. Foil said “Hello” to Jensen, then turned to sit on a box when an explosion occurred. The set piece on which Jensen was working exploded first. Foil ran to tlio fire door through which ho had entered, and thence to the north end of the east room. Ho opened a window and stood on the ledge until rescued. His hair and the cuffs on his trousers were singed. After running a few feet, Foil turned and looked back for Jensen. He did not see him. He saw no flames but lots of smoke. There was a “din of exploding fireworks.” Neither the first explosion nor those which followed were terrific enough to shake the building. The aisle through which Foil ran in escaping was formed of boxes piled 5 or 6 feet high containing fireworks. While standing on the window ledge, Foil saw flames coming out of the windows.

Robert Miller, an employee, testified that he was about 20 feet north of the set piece when it went off. He saw it “going off in all directions” and he ran to the fire escape on the north end of the building. He looked back but could not see any fire; he saw just a lot of black smoke. He heard loud explosions while he was going down the fire escape. The aisle between the rows of bins was about 4 feet wide. A few minutes after escaping from the building, the witness went around to the front of the building (the south end). Flames were then coining out of the windows and the fireworks were still exploding. A stairway led from near the southwest corner of the room to the third floor. Some of the shells are about 5 inches in diameter and 7 inches high. They are fired into the air from a steel mortar and they hurst in the air. The witness saw Mr. Jones, about five minutes before the explosion, talking to Mr. Vickery in the east room on the fourth floor. Before that, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
64 F.2d 968, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-accident-fire-life-assur-corp-v-brinn-jensen-co-ca8-1933.