Where suicide was the defence to an action on an insurance policy, it was not error to charge that "the law does not presume mur der; it must be proved ;" and, if the evidence is equal as between murder and suicide, the jury must find for the defendant; Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Egbert, 84 Fed. 411, 28 C. C. A. 281 ; and in an action on such a policy where the evidence is conflicting and quite evenly balanced as to whether death was caused by the intentional or accidental act of the deceased, it will he presumed that death resulted from accident ; Ingersoll v. Knights of Golden Rule, 47 Fed. 272. It has been said that the question is not precisely whether a party is insane or not, but whether he un derstood the physical nature and consequenc es of his act, and had sufficient will to make the act voluntary ; Nimick v. Life Ins. Co., 10 Am. L. Reg. (N. S.) 101, Fed. Cas. No. 10,266. See Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Akens, 150 U. S. 468, 14 Sup. Ct. 155, 37 L. Ed. T148; Wharton, Mental Phill. Ins.
The burden of showing a suicide rests with the company ; Gooding v. Life Ins. Co., 46
Ill. App. 307; Whitlatch v. Fidelity .& Casual ty Co., 71 Hun (N. Y.) 146, 24 N. Y. Supp. 537; Leman v. Life Ins. Co., 46 La. Ann. 1189, 15 South. 388, 24 L. R. A. 589, 49 Am. St. Rep. 348. In making the proof necessary to establish the liability of an insurer, the plain tiff is entitled to the presumption that a sane man would not commit suicide, as well as of other rules of law established for the guid ance of courts and juries in the investigation and determination of facts; Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co. v.. Akens, 150 U. S. 468, 14 Sup. Ct. 155, 37 L. Ed. 1148 ; and while proofs of loss, stating suicide as the cause of death, are admissible, they are not conclusive ; Leman v. Life Ins. Co., 46 La. Ann. 11S9, 15 South. 388, 24 L. R. A. 589, 49 Am. St. Rep. 348; and, where the defence is fraud, suicide may be shown to be the agency by which the fraud was accomplished, al hough by the policy sui cide was no defence; Smith v. N. B. Society, 123 N. Y. 85, 25 N. E. 197, 9 L. R. A. 616,