Rebenstorf v. Metropolitan Life Insurance

19 N.E.2d 420, 299 Ill. App. 71, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 703
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 14, 1939
DocketGen. No. 40,167
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 19 N.E.2d 420 (Rebenstorf v. Metropolitan Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rebenstorf v. Metropolitan Life Insurance, 19 N.E.2d 420, 299 Ill. App. 71, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 703 (Ill. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Mr. Justice John J. Sullivan

delivered the opinion of the court.

This appeal seeks to reverse a judgment for $5,000 entered against defendant, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, on the verdict of a jury in an action brought by plaintiff, Johanna Rebenstorf (now Johanna Lutz) upon a policy of accident insurance issued by defendant to her husband Paul F. Rebenstorf, in which she was named beneficiary.

Plaintiff’s amended complaint alleged the issuance of the policy and the death of Rebenstorf on April 3, 1935; and that on December 25, 1934, he “sustained bodily injuries which were caused directly and independently of all other causes by violent and accidental means, from which bodily injuries said Paul F. Rebenstorf subsequently . . . died.” Plaintiff filed the following amendment to her amended complaint: “That ... on the 25th day of December, 1934, the said Paul F. Rebenstorf sustained certain bodily injuries, which were caused directly and independently of all other causes, by violent and accidental means, which such injuries, directly and independently of all other causes, wholly and continuously disabled and prevented the said Paul F. Rebenstorf from performing any and every kind of duty pertaining to his occupation, and thereafter, during the period of such total and continuous disability, and within two hundred weeks from the date of said accident, i. e., on the 3rd day of April, 1935, said injuries, directly and independently of all other causes, resulted in the death of said Paul F. Rebenstorf.”

Defendant’s answer, after admitting the issuance of the policy and the death of Rebenstorf, denied that “the injuries alleged to have been sustained by the said Paul F. Rebenstorf on December 25, 1934, wholly and continuously disabled the said Paul F. Rebenstorf and . . . that said alleged injuries prevented the said Paul F. Rebenstorf from performing any and every kind of duty pertaining to Ms occupation from December 25, 1934, until the date of his death” and further denied that “the death of the said Paul F. Rebenstorf was caused by said alleged injuries directly and independently of all other causes and . . . that it is liable to the plaintiff in the sum of $5,000 ... or any other amount whatsoever.”

Johanna Lutz, plaintiff, testified that after dinner on Christmas day, 1934, her then husband, Paul F. Rebenstorf, took her, her daughter and her father and mother for an automobile ride; that as he drove east on Dempster road “there was a lady driving a big car going west, and she skidded, lost control of her car and skidded all the way across the road, and hit us ... it was not right head-on, it was to the left, right at the driver’s wheel, hit us there, and then she turned around her car, swing around, and she hit us again in the back, right at the left side in the back of the car where my mother was sitting”; that after the impact our car stopped immediately and “was junked right there’ ’; that ‘ my husband and myself were taken by the Riles Center Police to the police station, from which we were taken home.by neighbors”; that after the accident and while they were at the police station her husband “just doubled up” with pain and when they got home “he had to lie down, he was feeling bad”; that she then telephoned Dr. Herpe and went to his office where the doctor “examined him and taped Mm . . . about between the chest and the abdomen”; that the doctor “put the tape,” where the steering wheel hit him; that after the doctor treated her husband they went home in a taxicab; that prior to the time of the accident her husband was in apparent good health; that he had his tonsils removed in the spring of 1934, but had no serious illness during the five years previous to the accident; that, upon reaching home after their visit to Dr. Herpe’s office, her husband went to bed, where he remained for about a week, and “then he tried to get up, to sit in a lounging chair right near the bedroom door”; that Dr. Herpe continued to treat her husband; that during the period following the accident, he complained a great deal about his condition; that he moved around the house “just from the bed to the chair, to the bathroom and back to the bed and back to the chair,” and that from the time of the accident until the time of his death he did no work of any kind around the house.

She further testified that at the time of the accident and prior thereto, her husband worked for the Bed Cross Spaghetti and Macaroni Company as a salesman on a commission basis and as such salesman used an automobile; that about a month after the accident, he “tried to go back to work”; that he left home one morning about 11 or 12 o’clock and “was back within an hour or an hour and a half”; that she went with him on that occasion and he did not get out of the car ; that she turned the car around and drove home; that when they reached their home her husband went to bed; that from that time until his death, he did not “undertake to go back to work”; that her husband was operated upon April 1, 1935, and died April 3, 1935; that at the time of the accident Bebenstorf weighed about 210 pounds and at the time of his death he weighed approximately 180 pounds; that as time elapsed after the accident he became apparently worse and “he lost weight and looked yellow in his face”; and that he got out of bed less frequently and for a period of time before his operation he remained in bed continuously.

Plaintiff testified upon cross-examination that in addition to the time that her husband tried to go back to work “he just reported Friday nights” at his employer’s place of business; that he did no work for his employer during the months of February and March, 1935; and that such compensation as was paid him for those months was either for orders he had sold prior to the accident or for orders which she secured from some of his regular customers and transmitted in her husband’s name to his employer. At one point during her cross-examination, upon being asked “Now, isn’t it a fact that your husband worked from February to March of 1935, for the same concern, doing the same work?” and the witness answered, “Yes.” Further examination of the witness demonstrated that when she answered said question affirmatively, she was confused and did not understand the import of the question.

Dr. Gustav G. Herpe testified that he first attended Rebenstorf in 1933 when he removed his tonsils; that “at that time I found nothing abnormal” upon a cursory examination; that on Christmas day, 1934, “I made a rather complete examination, he having been in an accident ... at the time I saw him he complained of having been struck on the right side of the chest . . . and he complained of severe pain over the area of the fourth, fifth and sixth ribs on the right side, in about the middle of the clavicle line, that is, in the mid-right side . . . his breathing at that time was very shallow and the man had the facies and expression of a man who was really in quite a bit of pain and discomfort”; that “at that time I strapped up his chest, sent him to bed and gave him some sedatives”; that “I saw him daily, then, until he came into the office ... I think it was four or five days later when he returned to the office for an X-ray”; that when he saw Rebenstorf at his home during the four or five days mentioned “he was in bed”; that “at that time we continued to leave his chest strapped and gave him sedatives ...

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Faulkner v. Allstate Life Insurance
Appellate Court of Illinois, 1997
Cielen v. Aetna Life Insurance
229 N.E.2d 571 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1967)
Carlson v. New York Life Insurance
222 N.E.2d 363 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1966)
Kievit v. Loyal Protective Life Insurance
170 A.2d 22 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1961)
Mahon v. American Cas. Co. of Reading
167 A.2d 191 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1961)
Kater v. United Insurance Co. of America
165 N.E.2d 74 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1960)
LaBarge v. United Insurance
306 P.2d 380 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1956)
Stokes v. Police & Firemen's Ins.
109 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 928 (California Court of Appeal, 1952)
Stokes v. Police & Firemen's Insurance Ass'n
109 Cal. App. 2d 928 (Appellate Division of the Superior Court of California, 1952)
Preston v. ætna Life Ins. Co.
174 F.2d 10 (Seventh Circuit, 1949)
Letz v. World Insurance
84 N.E.2d 678 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1949)
Preston v. Ætna Life Ins.
77 F. Supp. 743 (N.D. Illinois, 1948)
Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York v. Hess
161 F.2d 1 (Fifth Circuit, 1947)
Kundiger v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
15 N.W.2d 487 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1944)
Mandles v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of America
115 F.2d 994 (Tenth Circuit, 1940)
Lang v. Metropolitan Life Ins.
115 F.2d 621 (Seventh Circuit, 1940)
Nelson v. Business Men's Assur. Co.
108 F.2d 363 (Seventh Circuit, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 N.E.2d 420, 299 Ill. App. 71, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 703, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rebenstorf-v-metropolitan-life-insurance-illappct-1939.