AN INSURANCE ACTION.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12750, 23 March 1910, Page 3

AN INSURANCE ACTION.

IMPORTANT DECISION. [Press Association— Coptbiqht.J Melbourne, March 22. The Federal High Court yesterday gave an, important decision in an appeal from the Stato Full Court, which infused. a new trial in the case of Goodrich versus the National, Mutual Life Association. Mrs. Goodrieh took out a policy for £600. Aifcer-her death tho company refused to , pay. over the amount on the ground that Mrs jGoodrich liad falsely answered certain personal questions , with a view to obtaining tho policy. .;. • In the Lower Court: trial a ..meqicalj maji tendere,d evidence regarding Mrs j Goodrich's physical stafce..before death I but the evidence was rejected. on the ground that the doctor had not obtained the consent of the. patient. , Tho jury found that Mrs Goodrich ! was not conscious of the falsity When she answered the questions that she was suffering from any such physical derangement, and gay© the plaintiff's executor judgment.for the full. amount and cost.. . . The defendant company based its appeals on tihe limitation of: the moan-, ing of the clauses of the Evidence Act, which. provides that no physician, or. surgeon, without the consent o£ a pa?: tient, shal^ divulge in any suit, or action (unless:the sanity of the. patient be the matter in dispute) any information acquired in attending a patilent. The High Court could not- sec that there was any satisfactory ground .for limiting the meaning of, the clause, ami upheld the Lower Court's decision.