HARTFORD LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY v. Catterson

George Bose Smith, Justice.

In 1965 the appellant issued an accident and sickness policy to the appellees’ mother, Becky Wilson Catterson. On March 3, 1966, Mrs. Catterson was committed to the State Hospital for a condition diagnosed as a manic-depressive reaction. The jury may have found from the evidence that Mrs. Catterson learned the next morning that she was to be given electric shock treatments. She at once left the hospital without permission and was missing until her dead body was found nine days later in an isolated wooded area. An autopsy indicated that death resulted from exposure…