Reserve Life Insurance Company, a Corporation v. Donald E. Marr, as of the Estate of Mary I. Marr, Deceased

Effective May 4, 1954, appellant Reserve Life Insurance Company, hereafter company, issued two Insurance Policies to one Mary I. Marr, hereafter insured, wherein the company agreed to pay certain therein named hospital expenses if and when incurred by insured. She is now deceased. Appellee Donald E. Marr is administrator of her estate.

At age 70 the insured suffered a stroke and on her doctor’s orders was taken to the Jane O’Brien Hospital in Spokane, Washington. Her condition stabilized after several weeks, but she remained partially incapacitated physically and required medicinal and nursing care. Insured was hospitalized for 14 months, receiving medicinal treatment and care by her physician. She made claim for the medical and hospital expenses incurred. The company denied the claim on the ground that the hospital in which insured was treated did not meet the standards set up in the policies. Suit was brought and a judgment rendered in favor of appellee.

The two policies contained identical definitions of the word “hospital” as used in the wording of a condition therein to the effect that in order to recover the insured must “be necessarily confined within a recognized…