-42 FEDERAL REPORTER.
was the same as if it had come upon him from sources outside of
himself, and for which he was not responsible: It was force ema-
nating, not from the brain and hand of Edward M. Crandal, as a re-
sponsible, voluntary agent, but force which was uncontrollable, so
far as he was concerned. The means employed to produce death
were external and violent. Were they not also, in a just and true
sense, accidental, if the deceased was so far bereft of his reasoning
faculties that his act was not the result of his will, or of a voluntary
operation of his mind? If, in consequence of his condition of irre·
sponsibility, the violence which he indicted upon himself was the
’ same as if it had operated upon him from without, then why was
not the death an accident within the dehnition of that term as giver:
by Bouvier, namely: "An event which, under the circumstances, is
unusual and unexpected by the person to whom it happens; the hap-
pening of an event without the concurrence of the will of the person by
whose agency it was caused ?"
No case has been cited where the question, as here presented, was
directly in judgment, but there are dicta which afford some aid ir.
reaching a conclusion. In 7 Amer. Law Rev. 587, 588, various deli-
nitions of an accident, as the term is used in insurance policies, are
given, name1y:_
"An accident is * any event which takes place without the oversight or ex-
‘ pectation of the person acted upon or affected by the event.' Ripley v. Rail-
way Passenger.? Assur. Oo., 2 Bigelow, Cas. 758; Providence Life Ins. Co.
v. Martin, 32 Md. 310. It is *any unexpected event which happens as by
chance, or which does not take place according to the usual course of things!
North American Ins. Co. v. Burroughs, 69 Pa. St. 43. •It is something
which takes place without any intelligent or apparent cause; without design,
and out of course} Mallory v. Travelers’ Ins Co., 47 N. Y. 52. * Some vio-
lence, casualty, or vis major is necessarily involved’ in the term accident.
It means, in short, in insurance policies, an injury which happens by reason
of some violence, casualty, or vis major to the assured, without his design
or consent, or voluntary co-operation." . ‘
Similar definitions are given by Mr. Justice Parnu in his discus-
sion of the question in Schneider v. Insurance Co., 24 Wis. 30.
In Scheiclerer v. Insurance C0., 58 Wis. 14, S. C. 16 N. W. Rep.
47, it was alleged in the pleading that while the insured, who was
traveling in a railway car, "was in a clozed and unconscious condition
of mind, and not knowing or realizing what he was doing," he involun-
tarily arose from his seat, and walked unconsciously to the platform
of the car, and fell therefrom to the ground; and it was held that
this constituted a good cause of action upon a policy of accident in-
surance. Here, it is true, the injury resulted from falling from the
car; but since the moving cause was the involuntary act of leaving
the seat and walking to the platform, the case suggests the inquiry,
if, for example, a person in a fit of somnambulism, or in delirium,
not knowing or realizing what he is doing, involuntarily inflicts injury
upon himself,-that is, by means of his own hand,—and death en-