Section 3.57 Suicide as a Defense

• Library: Insurance Practice 2015

Virtually all life and health insurance policies contain exclusions for death by suicide or self-destruction. A common provision in a life policy may read as follows:

Suicide. If the insured shall die by suicide while sane or insane within a period of two years following the date of issue of this policy, the liability of the company shall be limited to the premiums paid.

Double indemnity riders on life insurance policies usually provide that there will be no liability for additional indemnity for accidental death when death results from suicide or self-destruction, while sane or insane.

In accidental death policies in the health insurance area, the exclusion usually appears either in the definition of accidental bodily injury or in a separate provision entitled “Exclusions.” As in the double indemnity rider, it generally provides that there will be no liability in the event of the insured’s death resulting from suicide or a self-inflicted injury, while sane or insane.

Generally speaking, the courts have upheld suicide exclusions except where prohibited by statute. Missouri is unique in its treatment of the effects of suicide. Section 376.620, RSMo 2000, reads as follows:

376.620. Suicide no defense, when.—In all suits upon policies of insurance on life hereafter issued by any company doing business in this state, to a citizen of this state, it shall be no defense that the insured committed suicide, unless it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the court or jury trying the cause, that the insured contemplated suicide at the time he made his application for the policy, and any stipulation in the policy to the contrary shall be void.

The effect of this language is to prohibit raising the suicide defense in the absence of a showing that the insured contemplated suicide at the time he or she applied for the policy. Absent evidence of the intentions of the applicant at the time he or she applied for the policy (not at the time of the suicide), it may be difficult to say what the applicant’s mental intent and state of mind were at that point in time. As a practical matter, there are few cases in which this defense has even been raised.

Section 376.620 has been repeatedly upheld as constitutional. Whitfield v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. of Hartford, 205 U.S. 489 (1907). It should be noted that this statute applies only to policies issued to Missouri citizens. If the client holds a policy issued in another state that contains a suicide exclusion and then moves to Missouri, the statute has no...