McClure v. Great Western Accident Ass'n

118 N.W. 269, 141 Iowa 350
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 17, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 118 N.W. 269 (McClure v. Great Western Accident Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClure v. Great Western Accident Ass'n, 118 N.W. 269, 141 Iowa 350 (iowa 1908).

Opinion

Ladd, C. J. —

The insured had gone to the post office to mail a letter, but, upon ascertaining that the mail had been sent to the train, proceeded past the Bates House to the railway, where he took a well-beaten path between the main tracks to go to the depot. After having gone a short distance, he noticed a freight train coming down the east track, and also a cloud of steam and smoke. His testimony was to the effect that he remembered having a purpose of getting out of the way of these, and then all was blank. Mrs. Shelton testified that she saw him “just behind the caboose of a freight train passing on the east track and ahead of g passenger coming the opposite direction” on the west track; that she “saw him again just as he was crossing the last rail west,” and then on the ground after the collision; that' he was thirty or forty feet behind the caboose, and was crossing the tracks “at the public crossing that crosses the tracks . . . where the public highway crosses the railway.” Her testimony was not adduced on the former trial, and the only issue determined in this court was that the place of the injury was on the roadbed. 133 Iowa, 224. Upon remand a sub[353]*353stituted petition was filed in which recovery for weekly benefits was demanded, and, on the evidence then introduced, the jury found in answer to a special interrogatory and necessarily by the verdict that plaintiff was crossing on a highway when injured. The defendant’s policy provided for an indemnity of $15 per week to be paid plaintiff, not exceeding two hundred weeks, in event of injuries resulting from accident “immediately, continuously, and wholly disabling the injured from performing any and every kind of duty pertaining to his occupation.” Should the injury be received because of “unnecessary or voluntary exposure to obvious danger” or “while on the roadbed or bridge of any railway company, except while crossing at a public highway [except railway employees while in the regular discharge of ordinary duties], then the weekly benefits shall be one-fifth of the amount provided in this contract and for a total period not exceeding ten weeks.”

1. Accident insurance: notice and proof: inconsistency, Appellant says that the contention that he was crossing at a highway was inconsistent with the notice of the accident and proofs of loss furnished the association. In the notice it was said that he was injured when walking on the railroad track, and -was struck in the back by an engine. ±>ut it conclusively appears that plaintiff had nothing to do in writing or sending this notice. In the proofs of loss it is stated that he was on the railroad track and was struck by a train of cars. Neither this nor the notice is necessarily inconsistent with the finding that he was crossing the highway at the time. Nor is there anything in the original petition inconsistent therewith. Indeed, there is no dispute but that he was walking on the roadbed when struck by the engine. The controversy is as to whether he was then crossing the roadbed in a highway, and enough has been said to indicate that the verdict so finding is supported by' the evidence. It was conceded that plaintiff received the injuries while [354]*354on the roadbed, and this was all the notice of the accident and proofs of loss furnished the defendant asserted. The same is true of the original petition, and the contention that these áre inconsistent with the above answer to the special interrogatory is without foundation.

2. Same: proof of injury: waiver. Nor is there any basis for the argument that there was no waiver of the proofs of loss for the answer definitely admits “that defendant waived any further or additional notice or proof of said injury or . . loss. Possibly plaintiffs attitude on the ° ^ last trial may have been somewhat inconsistent with the alleged making of such proofs, but this does not obviate the force of the admission, for, no matter how inadequate those given, the answer concedes the waiver of anything additional which might have been required.

3. Same: injury while upon railroad track: burden of proof. II. The policy and by-laws provide that, if the accidental injuries were “received while on the roadbed or bridge of any railroad company, except while crossing at a public highway,” the indemnity should be for one-fifth of the amount stipulated in the . contract and for one-twentieth of the time, and the court in the fourth instruction told the jury that the burden of proof was on defendant to show that plaintiff was on the roadbe<j, and not on a highway crossing. Appellant insists that, though the burden of proof was on defendant to show that the accident occurred on the roadbed of a railway, when this appeared, such burden shifted to plaintiff, and rested on him to prove that it happened while crossing a public highway. In other words, defendant having proved the exception, plaintiff must establish the exception to the exception. The trouble with this contention is that the last supposed exception is but a limitation on the first, and the defendant is only relieved from the larger liability when the accident occurs on the roadbed elsewhere than in crossing over a highway. Indeed, several courts have held that [355]*355this limitation is implied, even though no mention is made of the insured crossing the track where travelers have the right to be. Thus, if he necessarily crosses to take a train or reach a station, this is not within the exception; DeLoy v. Travelers’ Ins. Co., 171 Pa. 1 (32 Atl. 1108, 50 Am. St. Rep. 787); Duncan v. Preferred Mut. Acc. Ass’n, 59 N. Y. Super. Ct. 145 (13 N. Y. Supp. 620; Id., 129 N. Y. 622, 29 N. E. 1029), or if he is carefully crossing the track on a well-recognized thoroughfare to and from the station; Payne v. Fraternal Acc. Ass’n, 119 Iowa, 342. See, also, Dougherty v. Pacific Mut. Life Ins. Co., 154 Pa. 385 (25 Atl. 739). The object of the exception is not to guard against injury from a defective roadbed, but against dangers incident to the operation of trains thereon. The condition is no more than an assurance or warranty that he will not intrude upon that part of the roadbed which is not also a part of the highway or public thoroughfare, and only upon a showing that he has done so, and in so doing the injury was received, does the exception apply. Manifestly, then, the instruction was correct, as was also another placing the burden of proof on defendant to show that the injury was received because of voluntary or unnecessary exposure to danger. Payne v. Ass’n, supra.

4. Same: limitation, of right of action: grounds of recovery: amendment: plea in bar. III. The policy provides that no suit shall be maintained upon it “unless commenced . . . within six months next after the disability for which claim is made either terminates or assumes a ' fixed and permanent character.” The court instructed _ the iiiry that the action must be regarded as ° having been commenced at the time the snbstituted petition was filed, August 17, 1907, and that, if this was more than six months after the injury had assumed a fixed and permanent character, the verdict should be for defendant, but, if six months had not elapsed since it had assumed such character, if it [356]*356had so become, then the finding should be for plaintiff on this issue.

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Bluebook (online)
118 N.W. 269, 141 Iowa 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclure-v-great-western-accident-assn-iowa-1908.