LIFE INSURANCE CASE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2767, 23 March 1910, Page 5

LIFE INSURANCE CASE.

- .- ■■■■■— " ** MEDICAL MAN'S INFORMATION PRIVILEGED. United Press Association —Copyright MELBOURNE, March 22. The High Court gave an important decision in an appeal from a decision the State Full Court gave, which refused a new trial in the case Goodrich, versus the National Mutual Life Association. Mrs Goodrich took out a policy for £6OO. After her death the company refused to pay over the amount due on the ground that Mrs Goodrich had falsely answered certain personal questions with the view of obtaining the policy. At the lower Court trial a medical man tendered evidence regarding Mrs Goodrich’s physical state before her death, but the evidence was rejected on the ground that the doctor had not obtained the consent of the patient. The jury found that Mrs Goodrich was not conscious when she answered the questions, and that she was not suffering from any such physical derangement. A verdict was given for plaintiff’s executor for the full amount and costs. The defendant company based the appeal on the limitation of the clause of the Evidence Act which provides that no physical surgeon shall, without the consent of a'patient, divulge' in any suit or action, unless the sanity of a patient be the mattei in dispute, any information acquired in attending a patient.

The High Court I ,could not see any satisfactory ground for limiting the meaning of the clause, and upheld the lower Court’s decision.