Barnett v. Monumental General Insurance

Ray Thornton, Justice.

On April 18, 1989, Jimmie Lee Barnett was helping pick up and stack logs that were blocking the road. Due to the unusual exertion that stacking entailed, he had a heart attack and died. At the time of his death due to cardiac arrest, Mr. Barnett had no known health problems. His family regarded his death as an accident and sent a claim to Monumental. Monumental denied the claim, contending that the policy did not cover death from natural causes and that a heart attack was a natural cause of death.

On November 23, 1992, Mr. Barnett’s family [the Barnetts] filed a lawsuit…