Accident policies have been held to cover death from shock and physical strain result ing from being run away •with in a covered carriage, where there was no mark of physi cal injury nor contact with any physical ob ject; McGlinchey v. Casualty Co., 80 Me. 251, 14 Ati. 13, 6 Am. St. Rep. 190; and see [1896] 2 Q. B. 248 ; suicide by an insane man ; Accident Ins. Co. v. Crandal, 120 11. S. 527, 7 Sup. Ct. 685, 30 L. Ed. 740 ; death from drowning ; 5 H. & N. 211; s. c., on appeal, 6 id. 839 ; falling into the water in a fit ; 22 L. T. N. S. 820 ; 6 Q. B. Div. 42 ; death from inhaling illuminating gas ; Paul v. Ins. Co., 112 N. Y. 472, 20 N. E. 347, 3 L. R. A. 443, 8 Am. St. Rep. 758 ; Fidelity & Casualty Co. of N. Y. v. Waterman, 59 Ill. App. 297 ; Pick ett v. Ins. Co., 144 Pa. 79, 22 Atl. 871, 13 L. R. A. 661, 27 Am. St. Rep. 618 ; U. S. Mut. Acc. Ass'n v. Newman, 84 Va. 52, 3 S. E. 805 ; by taking poison ; Healey v. Accident Ass'n, 133 Ill. 556, 25 N. E. 52, 9 L. R. A. 371, 22 Am. St. Rep. 637 ; or an overdose of medi cine ; Penfold v. Ins. Co., 85 N. Y. 319, 39 Am. Rep. 660 ; Northwestern Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Hazelett, 105 Ind. 212, 4 N. E. 582, 55 Am. Rep. 192; death caused by a piece of beef steak passing into the windpipe while eat ing ; American Accident Co. v. Reigart, 94 Ky. 547, 23 S. W. 191, 21 L. R. A. 651, 42 Am. St. Rep. 374 ; death from blood-poisoning, caused by the bite of a mosquito (although poison was expressly excepted) ; Omberg v. Accident Ass'n, 101 Ky. 303, 40 S. W. 909, 72 Am. St. Rep. 413 ; falling into the water as the result of a wound ; Mallory v. Ins. Co., 47 N. Y. 52, 7 Am. Rep. 410 ; falling on a railroad track in a fit and being run over ; 7 Q. B. Div. 216 ; being struck by the handle of a pitchfork while making hay and having peritonitis as a result of it ; North American Life & Acc. Ins. Co. v. Burroughs, 69 Pa. 43, 8 Am. Rep. 212; spraining the back while lifting a heavy weight ; 1 F. & F. 505 ; be ing attacked and killed by a highwayman ; Hutchcraft's Ex'r v. Ins. Co., 87 Ky. 300, 8 S. W. 570, 12 Am. St. Rep. 484 ; accidental shooting by a deputy sheriff who did not know at whom he was shooting and did not intend to kill the assured (there being an exception of death from design either of the insured or another person); Utter v. Ins. Co., 65 Mich. 545, 32 N. W. 812, 8 Am. St. Rep. 913 ; hernia resulting from an acci dental fall (although the policy excluded hernia); 17 C. B. N. S. 122 ; rupture of a blood-vessel sustained while exercising with Indian clubs ; McCarthy v. Ins. Co., 8 Biss. 362, Fed. Cas. No. 8,682 ; falling from the cars while walking during sleep ; Scheiderer v. Ins. Co., 58 Wis. 13, 16 N. W. 47, 46 Am. Rep. 618.
Stepping out of a railway carriage when it has come to a full stop at a station and slipping of the iron step, thereby sustaining injuries, is a railway accident ; 10 Exch. 45 ; death caused by blood poisoning resulting from an accidental cut is within the provi sion of . external violence and accidental means ; Central Accident Ins. Co. v. Rembe, 220 Ill. 151, 77 N. E. 123, 5 L. R. A. (N. S.) 933, 110 Am. St. Rep. 235, 5 Ann. Cas. 155 ; or from an accidental abrasion of the skin followed by bacterial infection ; Cary v. Ins. Co., 127 Wis. 67, 106 N. W. 1055, 115 Am. St. Rep. 997, 9 Ann. Cas. 484 ; Jones v. Cas ualty Co., 140 N. C. 262, 52 S. E. 578, 5 L. R. ,A. (N. S.) 932, 111 Am. St. Rep. 843; contra, where there is an exemption of liability for death resulting from poisoning; McGlother v. Accident Co., 89 Fed. 685, 32 C. C. A. 318 ;
Hill v. Ins. Co., 22 Hun (N. Y.) 187 ; and so where blood poisoning results from a wound in. the hand caused by assaulting another ; Fi delity & Casualty Co. of New York v. Stacey's Ex'rs, 143 Fed. 271, 74 C. C. A. 409, 5 L. R. A. (N. S.) 657, 6 Ann. Cas. 955 ; and death by accidental asphyxiation under an exemption from liability for death caused by gas or vapor ; Travelers' Ins. Co. v. Ayers, 217 Ill. 391, 75 N. E. 506, 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 168 ; but there may be a recovery for perios titis caused by pressure on the bones of the hand during sleep ; 'Etna Life Ins. Co. v. Fitzgerald, 165 Ind. 317, 75 N. E. 262, 1 L. R. A. (N. S.) 422, 112 Am. St. Rep. 232, 6 Ann. Cas. 551.
It has been strongly contended that such cases as those enumerated were not within the ordinary accident policy because there was no extraordinary injury according to the ordinary meaning of the term, but, in reply to this in a leading case of drowning, the court said: "That argument if carried to its extreme length would apply to every case where death was immediate ;" 6 H. & N. 839 ; and in a case of death from the in halation of gas, the court said: "We think it a sufficient answer that the gas in the at mosphere as an extraordinary cause was a violent agency in the sense that it worked on the intestate so as to cause his death ; that death is the result of accident or is unnat ural, imports the extraordinary and violent agency of the cause ;" Paul v. Ins. Co., 112 N. Y. 472, 20 N. E. 347, 3 L. R. A. 443, 8 Am, St. Rep. 758. The view which these courts considered untenable was, however, taken by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on a policy exactly similar. The court said: "The object of the company is to insure bodily injuries produced in a certain manner speci fied, that is, caused by external, violent, and accidental means ; not injuries caused by any one of these means, but by all of them combined ;" Pollock v. Acc. Ass'n, 102 Pa. 230, 48 Am. Rep. 204; but this language seems to be a dictum, because there was a condition in the policy excepting death or in jury caused by the taking of poison, and the point of the case was that an involuntary taking of poison by mistake was within the exception ; but in a New York case of death from inhaling gas there was also a proviso excepting death caused by inhaling gas, and the court construed it "to mean a voluntary and intelligent act assured and not an involuntary and unconscious act ;" Paul v. Ins. Co., 112 N. Y. 472, 20 N. E. 347, 3 L. R. A. 443, 8 Am. St. Rep. 758. This case and the Pennsylvania case are therefore in direct opposition on the construction of the condition, and the former was decided after consideration of and with express dissent from the latter.
An exception that if the insured should die by his own hand, sane or insane, the pol icy should be void, "covers all conscious acts of the insured by which death by his own hand is compassed, whether he was at the time sane or insane, if the act was done for the purpose of self-destruction, it matters not that the insured had no conception of the wrong involved in its performance ;" Streeter v. Acc. Soc., 65 Mich. 199, 31 N. W. 779, 8 Am. St. Rep. 882. In this case it was held that whether a fall six weeks before the insured shot himself was the cause of the killing was too conjectural to be sub mitted to the jury as a direct cause of the suicide. See CAUSA PROXIMA.