AN INSURANCE CLAIM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 69, 22 March 1910, Page 5

AN INSURANCE CLAIM.

iiAB-xrrs: OF COMPANIES.

MEDICAL EVIDENCE.

_. [{Received 8.45 a.m.)

MELBOURNE, this day. . The High Court gave an important decision in an appeal from the State Full Court, which refused a new trial in the case Goodrich versus the National Mutual Life Association. Mrs. Goodrich took out a policy for £600, but after her death the company refused to pay over the amount' due on the ground that Mrs. Goodrich had falsely answered certain personal questions with a view to obtaining a policy. « At the Lower Court trial a medical man tendered evidence regarding Mrs. Goodrich s physical state before death, but the evidence was rejected on the ground that the doctor had not obtained the consent of the patient. The jury found that Mrs. Goodrich was not conscious, when she answered the questions, | that she was suffering from any such physical derangement, and a verdict was I given for the plaintiff executor for the full amount, with costs. | The defendant company based its appeal on the limitation of the clause of the Evidence Act, which provides that no physician or surgeon shall, without the consent of the patient, divulge in any suit or action, unless the sanity of the patient be a matter in dispute, any information acquired in attending the patient. The High Court could not see any satisfactory ground for limiting the meaning of the clause, and upheld the Lower Court's decision.