DISCLAIMER:  Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
                        as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
062193P.pdf   02/27/2007  David J. Wood  v.  Valley Forge Ins.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  06-2193
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock   
   [PUBLISHED] [Arnold, Author, with Murphy and Benton,
   Circuit Judges]
   Civil case - Insurance. District court did not err
   in rejecting insurer's claim that the policy was void
   ab initio because of insured's misrepresentations at
   the time the policy was issued; at most, the policy
   was voidable within two years of issuance and since
   the policy had been in effect for more than two years
   at the time the insured died, the incontestability
   clause of the policy precluded any attempt to rescind
   the contract; the Arkansas Supreme Court would
   require proximate cause in order for the sickness or
   disease exclusion to relieve the insurer of liability
   under an accidental death policy; here, the insured's
   drug addiction and depression are too remote to be
   considered the proximate cause of his death from an
   drug and alcohol overdose; the district court erred
   in redacting the insured's death certificate to
   remove the coroner's conclusion that the insured's
   death was a suicide, but the error was harmless as
   the insurer was able to produce other evidence that
   the death should be considered a suicide; jury
   instructions requiring insurer to prove that the
   death was suicide were proper statements of Arkansas
   law which places that burden on an insurer trying to
   defeat coverage under a suicide exclusion;
   instructions requiring insurer to prove that insured
   intended his death at the time he took the drugs and
   alcohol were correct.