Opinion
42686.
ARGUED MAY 2, 1967.
DECIDED MAY 19, 1967.
Action on insurance policy. Liberty Superior Court. Before Judge Durrence.
Hitch, Miller, Beckmann Simpson, Robert M. Hitch, III, for appellant.
Jones Kemp, Charles M. Jones, for appellee.
1. Under a life-insurance policy with an accidental death feature, in order to make out a prima facie case solely under the accidental death feature, the burden was on the plaintiff beneficiary to prove that the death was caused "directly and independently of all other causes by accidental bodily injury," this being the definition of accident contained in the policy. Riggins v. Equitable Life Assur. Society, 64 Ga. App. 834, 835 ( 14 S.E.2d 182) and cases cited; Johnson v. Southern Life Ins. Co., 95 Ga. App. 625, 629 ( 98 S.E.2d 382).
2. The evidence in the present case demanded the finding that a fall sustained by the insured, if a cause of her death, was only a contributing cause, not one independent of such other possible causes as cerebral thrombosis, old age, arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, acute abdominal condition, dehydration, decreased nutritional status, debility and temperature. The plaintiff beneficiary failed to carry the burden of proof of death caused "directly and independently of all other causes by accidental bodily injury"; therefore, the court erred in its judgment overruling the defendant insurer's motion for judgment n.o.v.
Judgment reversed. Hall and Eberhardt, JJ., concur.