Court Opinion

ID: 9645066
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:11:48.626041+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:22.633163
License: Public Domain

CHAPMAN, Justice.
I respectfully dissent.
The majority opinion has correctly held that from the testimony presented by the plaintiff before she rested her case she had introduced sufficient evidence to justify the judgment rendered in her favor upon the insurance policy in question. The opinion ’correctly holds: “The judgment must stand, unless the evidence establishes that the shooting was intentional to that degree of conclusiveness which precludes a reasonable doubt to the contrary.” United Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Adair, Tex.Civ.App., 29 S.W.2d 940; Tex.Com.App., 29 S.W.2d 944. “ * * * there must be no room for fair and reasonable minds to reach different conclusions from the evidence.” Grand Fraternity v. Melton, 102 Tex. 399, 117 S.W. 788, 789. Thus, the majority has held if there is a reasonable doubt that the shot which killed the deceased was accidentally fired the judgment of the court below must stand. I have to assume then that they set the judgment aside upon the testimony alone of M. T. Robertson, a gunsmith of Amarillo. This would have to be true because appellant used only three witnesses and the other two were deputy sheriffs who testified only to the physical facts as they found them at the scene of the tragedy, which facts did not in any sense of the word preclude the possibility of accidental death. Let us then look to the testimony of Mr. Rob'ertson. Actually, when his testimony is summed up it was only to the effect that after the first shot was fired the gun would have to be pumped to put the next shell in the chamber and then the trigger would have to be pulled.
This writer can vision from the physical facts any number of possibilities by which the gun could have been fired accidentally. The exhibits in evidence indicate the deceased was in the process of crawling through a four strand barbed wire fence because he was found dead with his trousers leg hung to the second strand of wire from the top. The testimony shows that he carried the gun with him to shoot rattle snakes, coyotes, and other wild game. If he was at the time going through the fence after game with the gun in firing position with the barrel toward him and the butt of the stock on the ground and the trigger was accidentally pulled for the first shot while he was going through the fence it would have been very easy for him to have pumped the gun while holding on to it as a brace while in the process of falling. His thumb or one of his fingers could have then pulled the trigger or the pressure against one of the wires could have done so. This is just one of any number of possibilities that are easily demonstrated with the gun.
Doctor Hamra was the examining physician for the appellant on the insurance contract here sued upon. He testified the first shot, “In going through there like it did, it could have caused him to have — ■ like a convulsive movement, or seizure of some type. * * * People shot down will often drop down and not make any motion. Other people shot will actually move their hands and feet — you have motor areas in the brain. You can prick them and it will cause you to move an arm or a leg, or something like that.”
Doctor Massad had been the deceased’s treating physician for many years. He testified the deceased was a quite jolly sort of fellow, that the last time he had seen *928him he was as normal as he had ever seen him and that so far as he knew he had no motive to commit suicide. Doctor Hamra also testified, "From what I knew, I didn’t think he had a motive [to commit suicide].”
Doctor Weir testified in substance that from the first shot deceased could have gone into tetanic contractions and spasms of the muscles and could have made a lot of motions. I believe then that it is a fair statement from the medical testimony to say that the mechanism of the gun could have been operated unconsciously by such involuntary reactions of the body through convulsive movements of the arms and hands. This creates another possibility which this writer believes makes it improper for this court to say that the evidence establishes that the shooting was intentional to that degree of conclusiveness which precludes a reasonable doubt to the contrary.
When this record is considered as a whole we think it is also significant to note that deceased did not go to appellant and buy the policy of insurance on his life. To the contrary appellant’s agent went to his house without solicitation in an effort to sell him some insurance and the testimony shows by the agent that in his sales talk he showed him the retirement benefits of the policy whereby at his age it would have a cash value after it had been in force for 20 years of $432 per year. Additionally many business and professional men, people who worked with him, and his wife testified they knew of no motive deceased could have had to take his own life. His wife testified their home life was pleasant and the record is completely silent concerning any involvement with any other woman. His banker’s testimony shows he had no financial difficulties.
The majority opinion has correctly stated the law in quoting from Renfro Drug Co. v. Lewis, supra, where the trial was to the court and no findings of fact were requested of or filed by the trial judge. See also McWilliams v. Muse, 157 Tex. 109, 300 S.W.2d 643. When these rules are applied to the record before us I find myself unable to concur with the result reached by the majority. Actually, that opinion in quoting from the Renfro case correctly quotes the law in considering a no evidence point and then when applying the law to the facts passes only upon the general sufficiency or great weight and preponderance of the evidence to support the judgment of the lower court without anywhere applying the facts to the no evidence point raised.
In a case where the evidence was much stronger toward an indication of suicide than in the instant case and with a great deal of motive shown [whereas no motive is shown in our case] this court upheld a lower court verdict for the beneficiary and the case was affirmed by the Commission of Appeals. United Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Adair, 29 S.W.2d 940 ; 29 S.W.2d 944.
It is hardly to be presumed from the evidence in this case that deceased would have left the doors of his car open, the motor running, left the radio on and crawled into a fence to commit suicide. There is ample evidence from which the court, the fact finder in this case, could have concluded the shot that went through the deceased’s chin and came out the bridge of his nose [the one which left the powder burns] was accidental and that it ■ knocked him unconscious but was not fatal. If it was the first shot and knocked him unconscious and the second shot was fired in some manner while he was unconscious it could not, a fortiori, have been suicide because there could be no intent to destroy himself .without consciousness. Conversely, if he was attempting to destroy himself and the first shot did not accomplish his intent it seems reasonable to say if he was still conscious he would have fired the second shot with the barrel even closer to his body to make certain he did not miss a fatal area, yet there were no powder burns from that shot.
When all these possibilities are taken together with the rule of law, not of evidence, of the strong presumption against the commission of suicide I am compelled *929to say that the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.
DENTON, Chief Justice.
Disagreeing with the result reached and the application of the applicable rules of law by the opinion originally presumed to be this Court’s majority opinion, I consider it necessary to express my views in this case. The other two opinions sufficiently state the material facts of the case. I will therefore refrain from repeating them here.
Because of the nature of this case, the trial court’s judgment must stand or fall on the application of well-established rules of law which have to do with applying various rules of evidence and procedure. Appellant’s appeal is based on the contentions that there is “no evidence” and “insufficient evidence” to support the judgment of the trial court.
Both opinions clearly state the presumptions of law applicable in this type of case. Where death resulted from violent and external means and not from disease, the presumption is in favor of accidental death and against that of suicide. United Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Adair, Tex.Com.App., 29 S.W.2d 944, 24-B Tex.Jur. 928. However, in spite of this presumption of law the burden of proof is upon insured’s beneficiary to prove that insured’s death was accidental and not within the exceptions of the insurance policy. International Travelers’ Ass’n v. Bettis, 120 Tex. 67, 35 S.W.2d 1040. It is also a well-settled rule that where suicide is alleged by insurer as a defense, the burden of proof is upon the insurer to sustain this issue by overcoming the presumption of suicide. First States Life Co. v. Ransom, Tex.Civ.App., 110 S.W.2d 143 (no writ history) ; Southland Life Ins. Co. v. Brown, Tex.Civ.App., 121 S.W.2d 653 (error dismissed); Texas Life Ins. Co. v. Jordan, Tex.Civ.App., 253 S.W.2d 906 (error refused).
In applying these presumptions and rules of law to appellant’s first point of error of “no evidence,” the evidence must be reviewed in the light most favorable to the finding of the trial court. It is our duty to consider only the evidence favorable to the court’s finding and disregard all evidence which is adverse or contrary to the favorable evidence. Renfro Drug Co. v. Lewis, 149 Tex. 507, 235 S.W.2d 609, 23 A.L.R.2d 1114; Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Scharrenbeck, 146 Tex. 153, 204 S.W.2d 508. In view of the favorable evidence presented and the admission by appellant that the deceased died solely as a result of gunshot wounds, we must conclude the facts and circumstances established by this favorable evidence and the inferences which can be reasonably drawn therefrom support the trial court’s findings. In reviewing such evidence before us along with the legal presumptions, it seems clear that we can not say as a matter of law that Watson committed suicide.
We next consider the fact question of whether the trial court’s findings and judgment is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. In determining this question, this court must review all the evidence presented. Appellant’s sole defense in this case is based on the proposition that Watson’s death could not have been accidental but must have necessarily been suicide. This assertion is based on a gunsmith’s testimony, corroborated by two deputy sheriffs, to the effect that the rifle could not have been fired twice in succession accidentally. The three witnesses testified the gun must be pumped and the trigger pulled in order to fire the rifle. When this evidence is reviewed along with other evidence presented, we can not say this evidence overcomes the presumption against suicide, and that such evidence makes the trial court’s findings and judgment so contrary to the overwhelming weight of all the evidence as to be clearly wrong or manifestly unjust. The Commission of Appeals in United Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Adair, supra [29 S.W.2d 947], quoted with approval the following language:
“ * * * * judgment must stand, unless the evidence establishes inten*930tional self-destruction, or suicide to that degree of conclusiveness which precludes a reasonable doubt to the contrary, and there must be no room for fair and reasonable minds to reach different conclusions from the same evidence.”
In our view, appellant has not sustained this burden. We are of the further opinion that past actions, words and moods of the deceased are relevant as to any motive or intent to commit suicide. The court, in United Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Adair, supra, considered these factors and we think they should be considered here.
It now appears that two members of this Court are of the opinion that the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed. Therefore, the original opinion which was presumed to be the majority opinion at the time it was written must now become a dissenting opinion. Therefore, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.