464 MATURITY OF THE POLICY
I conclude that in no case should the suicide of an insured person defeat recovery upon a contract of life insurance not procured by him with the intention of committing suicide, unless the contract so provides in express terms. * * *
The direction of verdict for plaintiff was correct, and the judgment is affirmed. * * *6
(2) Under an Unqualified Suicide Clause.
BREASTED v. FARMERS TRUST & LOAN CO.
Supreme Court of New York, 1843. 4 Hill (N. Y.) 73.
Demurrer to replication. The declaration was ou a policy of insurance upon the life of Hiram Comfort, the plaintiffs' intestate. The policy contained a clause providing that, in case the assured should die upon the seas etc., or by his own hand, or in consequence of a duel, or by the hands of justice, etc., the policy should be void. The defendants pleaded that Comfort committed suicide by drowning himself in the Hudson river. Replication, that when the assured drowned himself he was of unsound mind and wholly unconscious of the act. Demurrer and joinder. * * *
NELSON, Ch. J. The question arising upon the demurrer is, whether Comfort's self-destruction in a fit of insanity can be deemed a death by his own hand, within the meaning of the policy. I am of opinion that it cannot. Since the argument of the case I have examined many precedents of life-policies used by the different insurance companies, and am entirely satisfied that the words in the policy in question import a death by suicide. Provisos declaring the policy to be void in case the insured commit suicide, or die by his own hand, are used indiscriminately by different insurance companies as expressing the same idea; and so they are evidently understood by the writers upon this branch of the law. The policies
6 Accord: Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Johnson (1920) 254 U. S. 96, 65 L. ed. 155, 41 Sup. Ct. 47, Comment (1921) 34 Harv. L. Rev. 436, and see Professor Vance's note thereon (1921) 30 Yale L. J. 401; Lange v. Royal Highlanders (1907) 75 Nebr. 188, 106 N. W. 224, 110 N. W. 1110, 10 L. R. A. (N. S.) 666, 121 Am. St. 786, Comment (1907) 5 Mich. L. Rev. 592; Grand Legion v. Beaty (1906) 224 Ill. 346, 79 N. E. 565, 8 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1124, 8 Ann. Cas. 160, Comments (1907) 7 Colum. L. Rev. 214, 2 Ill. L. Rev. 113.
Contra: Security Life Ins. Co. v. Dillard (1915) 117 Va. 401, 84 S. E. 656, Ann. Cas. 1917D, 1187, Comment (1915) 2 Va. L. Rev. 624. See also Comment (1903) 3 Colum. L. Rev. 591, Note (1912) 25 Harv. L. Rev. 283.
Suppose the policy were payable to the insured's estate. Would the result be different? Patterson v. Natural Premium Nat. Life Ins. Co. (1898) 100 Wis. 118, 75 N. W. 980, 42 L. R. A. 253, 69 Am. St. 899; Seiler v. Economic Life Assn. (1898) 105 Iowa 87, 74 N. W. 941, 43 L. R. A. 537; Supreme Lodge v. Kutscher (1897) 72 Ill. App. 462.
