Vanderbilt v. Travelers Insurance

Headnote

Insurance —■ contract of accident insurance — exception where death results from “war” — where testator was drowned as result of torpedoing of vessel on which he was a passenger during state of war no recovery may he had on policy.

Vanderbilt v. Travelers Ins. Co., 202 App. Div. 738 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered May 9, 1922, affirming a judgment in favor of defendant entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court at a Trial Term without a jury. The action was to recover upon a policy of accident insurance issued to plaintiffs’ testator. It contained a clause providing that the insurance would not cover injury or death resulting “ directly or indirectly, wholly or partly from * * * war.” The testator while a passenger on the British steamship Lusitania bound from New York to Liverpool lost his fife as the result of the torpedoing and sinking of said vessel by a German submarine, a state of war existing at the time between the British and German governments.