Pope v. Lincoln Nat. Life Ins.

103 F.2d 265, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3549
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 18, 1939
DocketNos. 11069, 11070
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 103 F.2d 265 (Pope v. Lincoln Nat. Life Ins.) 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
Pope v. Lincoln Nat. Life Ins., 103 F.2d 265, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3549 (8th Cir. 1939).

Opinion

STONE, Circuit Judge.

Appellant, as beneficiary, brought an action for the death of Charles H. Pope against the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company on an accident policy. Appellant brought another action for the death of Pope against the Columbian Na[266]*266tional Life Insurance. Company on two accident policies. The cases were consolidated for trial. At the close of the evidence- of plaintiff, verdicts were directed and judgments entered thereon for the respective defendants. From such judgments plaintiff brings these appeals which are presented on a single record.

Each appellee contends that none of the assignments of errors is sufficient to present any issue for review here. The assignments are as follows:

“1. The District Court erred in directing a verdict against plaintiff and in favor of defendant.
“2. The District Court erred in refusing to submit the case to the jury.
“3. The District Court erred in holding that as a matter of law plaintiff was not entitled to recover.
■ “4. The District Court erred in holding and ruling that the death of insured was not the result of accidental means within the provisions of the policy in question.”

The argument of appellees is that each of the assignments is too general. Whether an assignment of error is so general as to be insufficient depends upon the character of issue it seeks to present to the appellate court. The measure of a sufficiently specific assignment is that it clearly challenges a definite ruling or action of the trial court — such ruling being as to a matter which this Court may properly examine and determine. The sufficiency of the evidence to justify direction of a verdict at the close of the evidence of plaintiff is certainly a matter which this Court can examine and determine. Therefore, the question here is whether any of the above assignments has clearly challenged the action of the trial court in so directing each of these verdicts. It is difficult to imagine how this appellant could more clearly and definitely challenge the direction of these verdicts than she has in the above assignments. In four different forms of expression she has endeavored to draw to our attention that she claims the trial court erred in directing such verdicts. Each and all of them present but the one issue — definitely and clearly — that there was sufficient evidence to compel submission to the jury.

■ .The pertinent provision as to the risk insured against is stated in the Lincoln policy as: .“bodily injury; effected- solely through external, violent and accidental means and evidenced by a visible contusion or wound on the exterior of the body (except in case of drowning and internal injuries revealed by an autopsy).”

The provision in the Columbian policies is as follows: “bodily injuries effected directly and independently of all other causes through accidental means”.

Under both of the above quoted policy provisions, the issue was whether -there was sufficient evidence to justify a verdict of accidental death. Under the Lincoln policy there was thq additional issue of whether the accidental means of death was “evidenced by a visible contusion or wound on the exterior of the body” or by “internal injuries revealed by an autopsy.”

Viewed most favorably to the plaintiff, the fact situation shown, by the testimony is as follows. Charles H. Pope, the insured, left St. Louis, alone in a La Salle sedan, the afternoon of November 3, 1934, to drive to his farm near Irofiton, Missouri. Near the town of Bismarck, en route, he turned onto a road which had been recently laid out and graded but not yet surfaced with gravel. It had been raining and this road was very muddy. Other cars had used the road and there were ruts in the surface.

The evidence as to what took place upon the road is as follows: One witness saw him when he was about two hundred yards along the road. The car was stuck in the mud. “He seemed to have a terrible time, and I watched him until he got out.” He “zigzagged” from there about eight hundred feet and stuck again. He had trouble there “going back and forth” but finally got out. “It looked like the car would get around every way, like he would go to back away and start it, and then he would come back again.” This witness did not see Pope get out of the car — however, he was not watching constantly, being engaged at his barn. Another witness saw the car about three-fourths of a mile from Bismarck at about fifteen minutes before S o’clock. .Before the car was in his sight he could hear it “stuck up” (this was, obviously, the first time testified to by the previous witness). When he first saw it, the car was again stuck:

“He got out of the car and walked around the car, and he got back in.the car and tried it again, and I guess the first [267]*267time lie was there about fifteen minutes, then he got out. He ran down the road and he noticed a bad place and he stopped before he got to the place and he got out and walked ahead of the car. He looked at the place, went back to the car, stood there, and went back and looked again, and he got in the car and he got through and he got about, oh, I guess about one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards and he stuck up again, and he was there a little bit longer. I wouldn’t say for sure how long. It was 20 or 25 minutes when he finally did get out and he went along. There was a piece of woods on my side and I couldn’t see but I heard he was stuck up. I heard him about an hour and a half and, of course, I went ahead with my work and never paid any more attention. The last place he was there altogether an hour and a half. He might have been there longer. Sometimes the engine was running. He was racing it, and stopped a while, and would do the same thing over.
“Q. Did you see him skidding on the road ? A. • He was the second place where he got through.
“He went kind of over the road, didn’t stay in one place. He skidded from one side to the other. I wouldn’t hardly say over what length or what distance I saw him skidding, but it was a little distance, maybe from here to the door or maybe longer, I guess about 30 feet or 40, something like that. It might have been a little bit longer., I did not see the car when it was turned around facing southwest, I didn’t see that.
“It was kind of cloudy, but I don’t think it was raining. It had been raining the day before. I don’t know what time it had stopped raining. I don’t recall that.
“Dr. Pope got a piece of wood the first time. He put it under the wheel but the wood was so soft he couldn’t make it and he laid it in front of the hind wheels. I saw Dr. Pope at the wheel. He got in. I saw him driving the car. At the time he was skidding back and forth, he was at the wheel. He held the wheel, trying to get out of there. The road was so bad and he skidded, he couldn’t hold the wheel straight in the road. He couldn’t keep the car straight on the road.”

Cross-Examination.

“Q. Mr. Steffen, the last time he got hung up was what distance from where he was hung up the second time. A. Not the first time. The first time he stuck up on kind of high ground.
“Q. That is where you didn’t see him? A. That was north.
, “I didn’t see that. The first time was right uphill.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 F.2d 265, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pope-v-lincoln-nat-life-ins-ca8-1939.