| Notes |
- Charles William Haskell is listed in the 1850 US Federal Census for Boston, Ward 5, Suffolk county, as Charles W. Harker age 35, and his wife as Laura A. Harker age 27.
NOVEL LIFE INSURANCE CASE
An action was recently brought in the Superior Court (Boston, Mass.) by Laura A. Haskell, administratrix of C. W. Haskell, against the American Mutual Insurance Company, in a policy of life insurance issued by the defendants to C. W. Haskell in 1852, insuring his life in the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. At the trial there was evidence tending to show that C. W. Haskell, who was a bookbinder, was a man of remarkable activity, energy, and powers of physical endurance. Mr. John P. Jewett testified that in publishing Uncle Tom's Cabin, and other works, the binding had been done under the direction of Mr. Haskell, who had worked sixteen hours per diem. Mr. Haskell had not been absent from his business on account of ill health, was a man of remarkably temperate habits, and in the enjoyment of entire health up to the 13th October, 1856, when he was taken suddenly ill with vomiting, and in a few days died of a disease more closely resembling " ileus" than any other. A post-mortem examination was held which disclosed the existence of a short ligamentous baud in the abdomen and a small intestine glued on one side to the pelvis.
The physicians, Drs. Channing, Bartlett, and Homans, testified that this condition of the body could not have been known during life, that it was not a disease, because it had not interfered with the organic functions, but it was a deformity not incompatible with health and long life, unless some accident should occur; that it could not be told whether it caused death or affected the health in the present case. The defendant company did not pretend that Mr. Haskell had not been perfectly honest in all his statements to them, but insisted that because of this latent bodily defect they were not bound by the policy. Mr. Haskell, in his application, had stated that his health was pretty good, that he had no bodily defect or infirmity that he knew of, that he suffered somewhat with debility that he was not subject to lung or heart or other disease.
The court (Huntington, J.) instructed the jury that they were to determine whether the statements in the application were or were not true. If not true, the plaintiff, who had the burthen of proof, could not recover. That they would take the statements of the application all together and consider them as a whole, and not give to them a captious interpretation, but a reasonable, practical sense. The defendant requested the court to instruct the jury that, by reason of the bodily defects, the plaintiff could not recover; but the court declined so to do, and said there were circumstances to be weighed by the jury in considering the question of the truth of the application. The jury was out thirteen minutes, just long enough to compute the interest, and returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $81,537.
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1815 - 1856 (41 years)
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