Mutual Benefit Health & Accident Ass'n v. Hudman

POPE, Justice.

The question presented is whether Mary Louise Hudman, the beneficiary of an accident policy which limited coverage to death from accidental injury “independently of other causes,” may recover under the policy when the insured’s death resulted from the combined effects of the injury and a preexisting disease. She obtained a judgment in a case tried before the court without a jury and the intermediate court affirmed. 385 S.W.2d 509. We reverse those judgments and render judgment that the beneficiary take nothing.

Paul Hudman, a fifty-four year old pharmacist, was the insured under…