Gordon v. Metropolitan Life Insurance

This case involves an appeal from the “Serbonian Bog,” that morass of facts and legal distinctions involved in determining whether a death occurred “solely through violent, external and accidental means,” or was merely accidental in result. The appellant’s husband, Norton Gordon, died after a self-administered and illegal injection of heroin. There was no contention that any mishap occurred during the actual act of injection of the drug. He had a history of narcotics addiction and the medical examiner, Dr. Breitenecker, indicated that death could have resulted from the heroin alone, either by…