Haggard v. German Insurance

53 Mo. App. 98, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 20
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 14, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 53 Mo. App. 98 (Haggard v. German Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haggard v. German Insurance, 53 Mo. App. 98, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 20 (Mo. Ct. App. 1893).

Opinion

Bond, J.

— Plaintiff sued upon a policy of insurance covering his dwelling-house and other property, and alleged a destruction of the property so insured by fire [101]*101on April 20, 1890, during the life of said policy, and' immediate notice of said loss to the defendant, and ample proof of said loss furnished defendant within thirty days thereafter. Defendant’s answer admitted the execution of the policy, denied the allegations of the petition as to the quantity and value of the property destroyed, averred that the fire was caused by the “act, fault and conduct” of the plaintiff, and denied that “within thirty days after the fire, or at any other time, plaintiff made out and furnished to defendant due and ample proof of said loss, and verified by plaintiff, as stipulated and required.” The plaintiff replied, alleging a waiver by defendant of the informalities of proof, etc. After instructions given and refused, the cause was submitted to a jury, who returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $550, from which an appeal was taken to this court.

The only questions for review are those arising upon the giving and refusing instructions on the issue made in the 'pleadings as to the sufficiency in itself, and in point of time, of the proof of loss under the terms of the policy and the facts in the record. '

In the investigation of the issue to which we are thus restricted, it may be said in the outset that, unless an examination of the proof adduced shall disclose evidence entitling the plaintiff to have the question of waiver of the stipulations contained in the policy, both as to the contents of the proof of loss, and the time when it must be furnished, submitted to the jury, it will be our duty to reverse this case; since it is the uniform ruling of the supreme court as well as this court that the requirements of fire insurance policies as to the method of proof of loss, and the. time of the presentation thereof to the insurers, must be complied with, in the absence of waiver or estoppel, to enable the assured to recover for a loss covered by such poli[102]*102cies. Noonan v. Ins. Co., 21 Mo. 81; Leigh v. Ins. Co., 37 Mo. App. 543; Gale v. Ins. Co., 33 Mo. App. 664; Erwin v. Ins. Co., 24 Mo. App. 145; Hick v. Empire Co., 6 Mo. App. 254. It is, however, the settled law of both these jurisdictions “that, where there is any evidence from which it may be inferred, waiver is always a question to be passed upon by the jury under appropriate instructions. Loeb v. Ins. Co., 99 Mo. 50; Schmidt v. Ins. Co., 2 Mo. App. 339; Parks v. Ins. Co., 26 Mo. App. 511; Okey v. Ins. Co., 29 Mo. App. 105; McCluer v. Ins. Co., 31 Mo. App. 62; Travis v. Ins. Co., 32 Mo. App. 198; Stavinow v. Ins. Co., 43 Mo. App. 513; Summers v. Ins. Co., 45 Mo. App. 46.

To determine the applicability of these principles of law, it is necessary to refer to the facts contained in the transcript. The policy - of insurance contained a clause to the effect, that' the claimant should give written notice forthwith of a loss thereunder, and within thirty days thereafter furnish proof of the circumstances of the loss and of the property destroyed, etc., with the annexed certificate thereto of the nearest magistrate, etc. Plaintiff read in evidence the following letter:

“Marshfield, Mo., April 23, 1890.
“German Insurance Co., Freeport, HI.
“Gents. — My dwelling and portion of household goods were destroyed by fire on the night of the twentieth of this month. Cause unknown. Myself and family were in Springfield. Please give the matter your attention. W. C. Haggard.” .

Plaintiff read in evidence proofs of loss, dated May 17, 1890. These were written out for the plaintiff by a notary public, and were signed and sworn to by the plaintiff, and the only objection to their introduction in evidence, made by defendant, was that the certificate of the magistrate was not annexed, as required by the [103]*103policy of insurance. These proofs of loss' were mailed to defendant at Freeport, Illinois, on the morning of May 17, 1890, and were detained by the defendant at Freeport, Illinois, or by their state agents at Carthage, Missouri, so that they were returned to plaintiff under cover of an envelope addressed to him, on which was superscribed the date of May 26, and also the card of “Calhoun & Harrison, state agents of the Herman Insurance Company of Freeport, Illinois, Carthage, Missouri.” There was a received stamp, showing that this envelope arrived at plaintiff’s postoffice May 27. When the plaintiff opened the envelope, there was a slip of paper attached to the proofs of loss on which was written the following words: “Eeceived at Freeport, Illinois, and sent to Calhoun & Harrison for adjustment.” The evidence also was that Harrison, the defendant’s state agent and adjuster, came to Marshfield on June 17; that the plaintiff had a conversation with him then on the subject of the proofs of loss; that the plaintiff then offered to make any and all corrections, if there was anything not right in the proof of loss, and that Harrison replied quickly: “It was too late for any corrections.” The letter of May 26, 1890, written to the plaintiff by Harrison, which accompanied the return of the proofs of loss, gave amongst other reasons the following: “We object to proof, because same was not made to comply with policy in thirty days, as required by policy.” The evidence tended to show that it would take about twenty-four hours to go from Marshfield to Freeport, Illinois.

We think the foregoing evidence adduced by . plaintiff warranted the learned circuit judge in declining to give the instructions requested by defendant, all of which were offered on the theory that there was not sufficient evidence of waiver of the terms of the policy as to time of presentation and of the formalities of [104]*104execution of the proofs of loss to entitle the plaintiff to go to the jury.

The evidence for plaintiff tended to show that he sent his proofs of loss to the home office of the defendant several days before the expiration of the time (thirty days) limited in the policy, and the plaintiff never heard any objection to the sufficiency- of these proofs, until he received a letter from defendant’s state agent returning them on May 27, ten days after they had been forwarded by plaintiff; and that the time required for travel and transmission of mails between the postoffiee of the plaintiff and the defendant was only one day. When the proofs were thus returned, the plaintiff found on a slip attached to them a penciled statement, showing that they had been received at the home office of defendant and turned over to the state agents of the defendant company for adjustment. This detention of the proofs of loss and their delivery to the adjusting agents of defendant has been directly adjudicated to be evidence of waiver (Loeb v. Ins. Co., supra, 58), where it is said: “A

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Bluebook (online)
53 Mo. App. 98, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haggard-v-german-insurance-moctapp-1893.