Mutual Life Insurance v. Laurence

When this case was before this court at the October term, 1879, the question presented for our decision, as we then stated, was whether the accidental death of a sane person is within the meaning of the clause in the policy exempting the insurance company from liability in case of the self-destruction of the person, whether voluntary or involuntary, and whether he be sane or insane at the time,” simply because some act of the deceased, performed with no design or intention to produce death, but for an entirely innocent purpose, and without negligence, happens to be the proximate cause of his…