Court Opinion

ID: 9447656
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:40:23.905724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:07.950300
License: Public Domain

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The conflicting evidence in the record made this a classical case for determination by a jury. There is evidence to support the verdict arrived at and approved by Judge Igoe, an experienced jurist. I find no error in the instructions which he gave to the jury. American Home Circle v. Schneider, 134 Ill.App. 600, 604; Goldstein v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 324 Ill.App. 168, 57 N.E.2d 645, leave to appeal denied 326 Ill.App. XV; Wilkinson v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 240 Ill. 205, 211, 88 N.E. 550, 25 L.R.A.,N.S., 1256. I do not believe that the majority opinion is sustained by Kettlewell v. Prudential Ins. Co., 1 Ill.App.2d 300, 117 N.E.2d 568. This is true for several reasons. I mention only one; the opinion of the Illinois Appellate court says, 1 Ill.App.2d at page 307, 117 N.E.2d at page 571, “None of the testimony offered on behalf of the plaintiff throws any light upon the factual situation.” That statement distinguishes the Kettlewell case from the case at bar. Here there is considerable evi*666dence on behalf of plaintiff to explain that Professor Ziegler at the time of his death as well as prior thereto engaged in several attempts to escape from the hospital, a fact which is inconsistent with the suicide theory and which was evidently persuasive in the minds of the jury.
I would affirm the judgment of the district court.