Wright v. Ætna Life Ins.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 1 district · 9 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “* * * the insured was riding down a mountain road of steep grade in the private automobile of a friend, who was driving. In the descent the driver, in attempting to change gear, for the time being lost control of the car. When he finally got it under control, he found the deceased had disappeared, and, going back, found him lying face down on the road. He was unconscious and so fatally injured that death ensued the next day. No one saw how or when he left the car, and, other than the fact that when the car got out of control he was in it, and when control was regained he was not in it, everything was speculative. Did the policy cover such an accident? That the physical injury suffered by the deceased was inflicted when he struck the road, and not when he was in the car, is clear, and therefore, adhering to the literalism of its policy the company contends the deceased, when injured, was not `riding in the car', and therefore, looking at the injury and accident as occurring at the instant his head struck the roadway the situation was one not covered by the policy. On the other hand, it is contended that the real accident was losing control of the car, and if the deceased was then riding in the car, and one of the natural and to be expected results of that lost control was that he might leave the car, then the policy covered the situation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Walden v. Automobile Owners Safety Insurance Co.

2. “If one were insured while `riding in a motorboat,' and circumstances arose where the steering gear ceased to control and the vessel was headed for a dam, rapid, or other vessel, and a frightened passenger jumped out to save himself, and thereafter succumbed and was drowned, while not riding in the motorboat, a reasonable man might contend that under such circumstances the passenger was covered by such policy, although actual death came from drowning. In the present case the real accident was not when Wright's head struck the road, but when car control was lost. Such lost car control was the critical accident time, and the dominating factor which subjected the riding passenger to present peril and later death.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Walden v. Automobile Owners Safety Insurance Co.