Court Opinion

ID: 9762095
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:10:11.793989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:29.959405
License: Public Domain

Inglis, C. J.
(dissenting). I do not agree with the conclusion reached in the opinion that, under the terms of the policies, the burden of proving that disease contributed to the death of the insured was upon the defendant. It is always incumbent upon the person claiming under a policy of insurance to demonstrate that the loss came within the coverage stated in the policy. In the policies before us, the main coverage clause bound the defendant to pay double indemnity only in the event that the insured’s death resulted, directly and independently of all *31other causes, from bodily injury sustained solely through external, violent and accidental means. It did not purport to cover a death which was contributed to by any cause other than accidental injury.
The reasoning of the majority of the court rests upon the fact that there was appended to the coverage clause a so-called exception excluding death caused by disease. It is said that the burden is upon an insurer to prove that the death came within this exception. The answer to that is that the so-called exception in the policies in suit is not a true exception. It would not take out of the coverage any death which was included in the main coverage provision. Any death which is caused in part by disease is, of course, not a death which is caused solely by accident. The only purpose of the “exception” is to clarify, and emphasize the restriction of, the coverage which is prescribed in the main coverage clause. Consequently, the presence of the “exception” in the policies does not shift the burden of proof as to the cause of death to the defendant. It still remains for the plaintiff to satisfy the trier that disease was not a substantial factor in causing the death. Wojcik v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 124 Conn. 532, 535, 1 A.2d 131; O’Meara v. Columbian National Life Ins. Co., 119 Conn. 641, 644, 178 A. 357.