Case Name: WHITEHEAD v. RAILWAY MAIL ASS'N
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1920-12-11
Citations: 269 F. 25
Docket Number: No. 3560
Parties: WHITEHEAD v. RAILWAY MAIL ASS’N.
Judges: Before WALKER, BRYAN, and KING, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 269
Pages: 25–25

Head Matter:
WHITEHEAD v. RAILWAY MAIL ASS’N.
(Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
December 11, 1920.)
No. 3560.
Insurance «§=>455—Death held not through accidental means; “injury through external, violent, and accidental means.”
The death of an insured resulting from his voluntary act in getting olí: a moving railroad train, while passing over a bridge, held not due to injury through external, violent, and accidental means within the terms of the policy.
[Ed. Note.—-For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, Second Series, Accident; Accidental.]
^5>For other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes
In Error to the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi; Edwin R. Holmes, Judge.
Action at law by Julia A. Whitehead against the Railway Mail Association. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error.
Affirmed.
J. A. Teat, of Jackson, Miss.. (Chalmers Potter, of Memphis, Term., on the brief), for plaintiff in error.
William H. Watkins, of Jackson, Miss., for defendant in error.
Before WALKER, BRYAN, and KING, Circuit Judges.
Certiorari denied 254 U. S. —— 41 Sup. Ct. 375, 65 L. Ed. —.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
This was an action on a benefit certificate to recover the amount payable in the event of the death of the insured resulting from bodily injury through external, violent, and accidental means. The averments of the declaration to the effect that the death of the insured was caused by such means were put in issue. The evidence without dispute showed that the insured's death resulted, not from accidental means, hut from his voluntary act in getting off a moving railroad train to a place underneath a bridge over a creek, the car he was in being, at the time he so left it, on that bridge. The court did not err in instructing the jury to find for the defendant.
Affirmed.