APPEAL FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23034, 11 May 1938, Page 15

APPEAL FAILS

TAXI SUICIDE CASE INSURANCE WITHHELD VERDICT FOR COMPANY LONDON. May 9 In dismissing Mrs. Beresford's appeal against the judgment of the Appeal Court on March 23, 1037, the House of Lords held that, although the insurance company had agreed to pay on life policies for £50,000 after the expiration of a year, even if the assured committed suicide while of sound mind, such a contract could not be enforced owing to the recognised principle that a man cannot, by recourse to law, claim benefit from his crime.

The case referred to in the cablegram arises out of the suicide in a taxi-cab in London of Major Rowlandson, a bachelor, on August 3, 1934. At the subsequent inquest it was found that he was hopelessly insolvent. The major had received a letter from the Royal Insurance Company, with which he was insured for £43.000, giving him until 3 p.m. on August 3 to renew his premium, and the evidence of the taxi driver showed that ho had shot himself n minute or two before that time, after having drawn the driver's attention to a clock in the vicinitv.

The deceased's niece, Mrs. Dclapoer Beresford, on behalf of the creditors, sued the Royal Insurance Company in July, 1936, for the £43,000. Sir William Jowitt, 'K.C., for the plaintiff, conceded that, although the coroner had returned a verdict to the effect that deceased had feloniously committed suicide, 4ater evidence had suggested that he was insane previously, and had attempted to poison himself.

Mr. Justice Swift, in his summing up, expressed the opinion that the deiiberatencgs with which the suicide had been planned was not evidence ot : insanity. Rowlnndson had deliberately thought out his scheme. The jury returned a verdict that Rowlandson was sane. The judge later gave his decision in favour of the plaintiff. An appeal made later by the Royal Insurance Company against the Judge's decision was allowed bv the Appeal Court.