Accidental means

What does Accidental means mean in American Law?

The definition of Accidental means in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

A distinction sometimes used to be made between “accidental death” and “death by accidental means” as those terms figured in life and accident insurance policies. A death could be “accidental,” in the sense of not forseeable, predictable, or intended, and still not be (as the policy required) “by accidental means,” when the nearest cause was not itself an “accident.” Hence, in one case in which the insured died of sunstroke after voluntarily going out in the sun to play golf, it was held that the rays of the sun were not “accidental means” of death within the policy, though the death was the accidental result of the exposure. This distinction has now been generally (and blessedly) abandoned.