Queatham v. Modern Woodmen of America

127 S.W. 651, 148 Mo. App. 33, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 594
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 19, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 127 S.W. 651 (Queatham v. Modern Woodmen of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Queatham v. Modern Woodmen of America, 127 S.W. 651, 148 Mo. App. 33, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 594 (Mo. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

NORTONI, J.

This is a suit on a certificate of life insurance. The plaintiff recovered and defendant prosecutes the appeal. The question for decision relates entirely to the sufficiency of the proof to sustain the verdict for plaintiffs. In other words, it is urged the court should have directed a verdict for defendant on its affirmative defense that deceased came to his death as a direct result of his employment in an occupation prohibited by the contract of insurance. As the principal elements relied upon by defendant in support of its ar[40]*40gument consist of admissions in the proof of death and the record of the coroner’s inquest introduced by it, the competency and probative force to be accorded to these documents are subjects for consideration as will hereafter more fully appear.

The defendant is a mutual benefit association organized under the laws of the State of Illinois and doing a life insurance business in Missouri. The plaintiff sues as the duly appointed and qualified guardian of several minors who are the beneficiaries in the certificate of insurance involved. It appears that several years ago the deceased, David Queatham, father of the beneficiaries, became a member of the defendant order and for a competent consideration it issued to him its certificate of insurance on his life to an amount not exceeding two thousand dollars which, after the decease of his wife, became payable to his children, the infant beneficiaries, for whom the guardian prosecutes this suit. The insured, David Queatham, died December 26, 1906, but just what occasioned his death was the question at issue in the trial, for, if it' occurred as a direct result of his following the occupation of railroad brakeman or switchman, which was prohibited by the contract of insurance, no liability may be enforced against the defendant.

At the trial, besides introducing the certificate of insurance and proving the right of the guardian to maintain the suit for the infant beneficiaries, plaintiff introduced a stipulation, executed by the defendant to the effect that at the time of his death the insured was in good standing in the order and had paid all of his assessments and dues thereto. The defendant, by its answer, admitted as well that plaintiff had departed this life on the date mentioned and due proof of his death had been furnished it in accordance with the stipulation of the contract.

A prima facie case having been thus made, the defendant sought to escape liability on the grounds the [41]*41insured came to his death as a direct result of following the occupation of a railroad brakeman or switch-man, which occupation was prohibited by the contract. The certificate of insurance stipulated that if the insured should follow any employment or occupation mentioned in section 14 of the by-laws of the society the contract of insurance should thereby become ipso facto null and void as to any claim for death benefits, if the death of the insured was directly traceable to such haz: ardous employment or occupation. Section 14 of the bylaws, in force at the time the certificate was issued and at all times thereafter, including the date of the death of the insured, denounced and prohibited the occupation of railroad brakeman on all trains except passenger trains nsing air-brakes only and further denounced and prohibited the occupation of a railroad switchman, such as switching or coupling cars or braking thereon. And it was further stipulated in the contract that a person should be held to be engaged in such prohibited occupations when the work or duties incident to his employment required him occasionally or continuously during any part of the year to perform any of the work or duties of or incident to such prohibited occupations. The insured was in the employ of the Hydraulic Press Brick Company at the time of his death and the duties of his employment required him to work both as a railroad brakeman and switchman about a locomotive engine and numerous cars on the tracks at the works of the press brick company. It is true he was not employed by the railroad company, nevertheless h‘e, together with his companions, worked daily about a standard locomotive engine and railroad cars operated by the press brick company at its works. The duties of the insured were to throw switches, give signals, couple cars, set brakes, ride on the freight cars and locomotive engine as on any railroad. It appears, too, the train about which he worked was not a passenger train and the cars were not cars using air-brakes. Indeed, the evidence is conclusive to [42]*42the effect that at the time of his death the insured was engaged in an occupation prohibited by the express terms of the contract of insurance and if his death was directly traceable to such employment, then no liability therefor obtains against the defendant, for the reason such liability is expressly excluded by the provisions of the contract.

After setting forth the provision of the certificate and its by-laws touching such prohibited employment, the defendant affirmatively pleaded the insured came to his death by being crushed between the cab and the tender of a locomotive engine about which he was employed and prayed to be discharged from liability on the ground his death was directly traceable to such, prohibited employment. There can be no doubt that the burden is on the defendant to show to the reasonable satisfaction of the jury the insured came to his death as a direct result of the prohibited occupation in which he was engaged. [Meadows v. Pac. Mut. Life Ins. Co., 129 Mo. 76, 31 S. W. 578; 3 Elliott on Evidence, sec. 2372; 4 Cooley’s Briefs on Insurance, p. 3257.]

To sustain this burden, the defendant introduced in evidence, over the objection and exception of plaintiff, the proofs of death furnished it by the plaintiff, together with a copy of the coroner’s inquest or verdict and the depositions of witneses given at such inquest. The evidence was received on the theory that it constituted admissions by plaintiffs against interest.

In connection with, and as parcel of, the proofs of death, there is a certificate of the attending physician to the effect that insured came to his death from a fracture at the base of the skull and the several depositions of witnesses at the inquest together with the verdict of the coroner’s jury recite deceased came to his death from injuries received by being crushed between the tender and cab of a locomotive engine while rounding a short curve.

[43]*43After the court received these documents in evidence, over the objection and exception of plaintiff, plaintiff introduced other evidence in rebuttal, tending to contradict the same and indicating the insured might have come to his death as a result of a stroke of apoplexy. This evidence will be further noticed hereafter. The defendant argues that the evidence introduced by plaintiff in rebuttal is wholly insufficient to overcome and repel the probative force of the facts recited pertaining to the cause of death in the proof of death and the depositions and coroner’s verdict; that the proof of death and proceedings before the coroner are to be regarded as admissions against the beneficiary and sufficient to support its defense unless overcome by substantial evidence to the contrary.

This matter will be considered in three parts: First, as to the competency of the proof of death as admissions against interest; second, as to the depositions given before the coroner; and third, as to the probative force of the coroner’s inquest, or, in other words, the verdict of the coroner’s jury.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 S.W. 651, 148 Mo. App. 33, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/queatham-v-modern-woodmen-of-america-moctapp-1910.