The Sun. — 1841-12-17 (London, England)

BORRODAILE V. SIR C. I!UNTER, BART., AND OTHERS. Upon the part of the insurers, the facts of the case were stated to be these :—The Rev. William Borrodaile insured his life in the London Life Association in the sum of 1,0001 This was in the year 1824, at which period he married his wife, the present plaintiff. The suicide was committed in 1838, under these circumstances :—On the 10th of February he left his residence at Wandsworth, early in the morning. intending to proceed towards London. At ten o'clock in the day he was met by a Mr. Unwin, on the road leading to Vauxhallbridge, and that individual noticed an alteration in his manner at the time. The next time he was seen by any one who was acquainted with him was about one o'clock, when he was beheld climbing upon the parapet of Vauxhall-bridge, whence he threw himself into the river and was drowned. Under these circumstances, application was made to the Insurance-office for the amount of the policy, which had been bequeathed to the widow and children of the deceased ; but payment of the sum was refused, on the ground that Mr. Borrodaile had committed suicide, and that this, according to the words of the instrument, vitiated the policy, as he had " died by his own hand." The present action was, accordingly, brought to recover the amount of the policy of insurance• upon this gentleman's life. From the evidence. given on behalf of the defendants, it appeared that, according to the opinion of the witnesses, the Rev. William Borrodaile was of sane mind at the period of his death ; and that as a proof of the same, he had only on the preceding Sunday administered the Sacrament, as usual, in his own church. Mr. Justice Erskine said, he supposed that the mere act of destroying himself, whether in sleep or by accident, would not be contended by the defendants to bring a man within the meaning of the words=" died by his Oil n hand." If this gentleman had voluntarily precipitated himself into the water, to destroy life, then the case would be within the meaning of the words in the policy ; but if his mind were then so far gone that he did not know the probable consequences of what he did, then it would not be within those words.  The case for the plaintiff was then proceeded with, from which it appeared that the deceased gentleman was married in 1824, and that he was in the receipt of about 8001. a year from his living at Wandsworth. Latterly, however, he had suffered under difficulties, and had been much distressed in mind, from the default of a tax-gatherer in his parish, for whom he had become surety, and on account of whom he had to pay 5,0001. Shortly before his death he became depressed and melancholy and disquieted in his manner. On the morning of the suicide he had ordered clothes to be packed up for him, as he intended to join his wife and children at Worthing that day; and all his acts on that morning showed that he went oat with an expectation of life. There seemed every reason to believe that the thought of self-destruction came suddenly, and that the act was not one of premeditation and deliberation. The deceased had no motive for self-destruction, and therefore that act must have resulted from a state of insanity at the time he 'committed it. The witnesses all spoke of the decided alteration in his manner for some time before, and on the day of his suicide. Dr. Morrison, the physician, was called, and said that from the evidence he had heard during the cause respecting the conduct of the Rev. Wm. Borrodaile, he was of a decided opinion that the gentleman was not in a sane state of mind at the time he threw himself into the Thames. The witness said he had come to that conclusion on the subject of the insanity of the deceased, from the change in his manners, the depression in spirits, and the restlessness he exhibited. The witness had no doubt that Mr. Borrodaile laboured under the symptoms of incipient insanity, that exploded in the act of self-destruction. He had often known in similar cases patients to commit suicide from a sudden impulse, and without any previous intention to commit the act of self-destruction.  Several other physicians were examined, and gave similar testimony as to their opinion of Mr. Borrodaile's insanity, after having heard the evidence adduced upon that point. This closed the plaintiff's case. The