The Suicide Clause

Owing to the difficulty of defining clearly the term "suicide", insurance companies now protect themselves by including some such clause as the following in their contracts: "If within one year from the date hereof the insured shall, whether sane or insane, die by his own hand; the liability of the company under this policy shall be limited to the amount of the reserve hereon." Such a limitation upon the company's liability the courts have generally construed as reasonable, and as Elliott concludes: a Under it the insurer is not liable, although the insured kills himself while in a condition which renders him wholly unconscious of the moral nature of the act". Full support of this view has been given by the United States Supreme Court which decided in a leading case that "for the purpose of this suit it is enough to say that the policy was rendered void, as the insured was conscious of the physical nature of his act and intended by it to cause his death although, at the time, he was incapable of judging between right and wrong and of understanding the moral consequences of what he was doing".

Accidental self-destruction, however, cannot be regarded as coming within the scope of the modern suicide clause; in fact, cannot be considered as suicide at all. Moreover, in case of doubt as to whether the death occurred through suicide or accident, the presumption is always in favor of accident. The company also, when raising the defense of suicide, "whether sane or insane", must assume the burden of proving conclusively that the case is one of intentional self-destruction.