Opinion
March 1, 1943.
In this action by the beneficiary of a policy of life insurance to recover $10,000, payable in the event insured died through external, violent and accidental means, the accidentality of the injury, resulting in death, could only have been inferred from the circumstances surrounding the occurrence of the insured's fall upon a subway platform, including the nature of the injury which the jury found to have caused his death. Where it appeared that the death certificate and a part of the medical examiner's report contained the conclusory and hearsay statements that the insured's death had resulted from "accident," and that he was "said to have fallen on subway platform," it was error to admit them in evidence over the specific objection of the defendant that they contained an opinion on a matter within the province of the jury to determine. Judgment in favor of the plaintiff reversed on the law and a new trial granted, with costs to abide the event. Close, P.J., Hagarty, Carswell, Adel and Taylor, JJ., concur.