Imperial Fire Ins. Co. of London v. Home Ins. Co. of New Orleans

68 F. 698, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2898
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 17, 1895
DocketNos. 370 and 371
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 68 F. 698 (Imperial Fire Ins. Co. of London v. Home Ins. Co. of New Orleans) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Imperial Fire Ins. Co. of London v. Home Ins. Co. of New Orleans, 68 F. 698, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2898 (5th Cir. 1895).

Opinions

McCORMICK, Circuit Judge.

These cases will be considered together in this opinion. The appellants, the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool and the Imperial Fire Insurance Company of London, will be referred to, respectively, as the Royal and the Imperial, and the Home Insurance Company of New Orleans, the appel-lee in-each case, will be referred to as the appellee.

[699]*699In November and December, 1891, the appellee applied to the appellants for reinsurance, and duly received the respective policies which are the subjects of this litigation. The ajipli cations to (he Boyal were made on printed forms, with certain blanks filled in writing. ' The application to the Imperial does not appear to have been in writing, but was substantially to the same effect as those made to tlie Boyal, the features of which material to note here were and are (hat the applicant warranted to retain $25,000, and described the property applicant had insured as “cotton subject to coinsurance clause.” The Boyal has now abandoned any contention on the re-ten (ion clause. The Imperial still insists on its construction of that clause, but the proof abundantly supports the action of the circuit court on the issues made on the warranty by the Home to retain 825,000 or more on the risk. During the life of these policies of coinsurance, a large amount of the cotton was destroyed by fire. At the time of (he fire, the appellee had written and in force, on the cotton subject to the fire, policies with the coinsurance clause to the amount of $97,700, and policies without the coinsurance clause to the amount of $25,000. The loss on the cotton covered by the first-named class of these policies was $38,707.58, and the loss on the other exceeded tlie amount of the policies. There is substantially no issue as to what were the actual facts as to the contracts and the loss; and there can be no dispute that, if tlie contention of the ap-pellee as to (he construction of the contract of coinsurance is correct, the decree of the circuit court should be affirmed. Having found that its construction of the retention clause is correct, it only remains to consider the other clauses of the policies on which issue is joined. The judgment and decree of the circuit court construe these clauses in favor of the appellee, and a majority of the judges of this court concur in that conclusion. The questions here involved are so well stated, aud the authorities, so far as any authority exists bearing on the question, are so soundly applied, and the argument so full, fair, and well expressed in the brief of counsel for the appellee, that, in justice to ourselves and to him, we must adopt and use his reasoning almost literally, and to substantially the full extent that he has advanced it, there being left little or nothing to add to or qualify what he has said :

It is urged Hint tlie defendants are not liable for tlie losses paid by tlie plaintiff to Frankonbusli and Borland, because the policies issued to theni did not contain the coinsurance clause. It is urged that the two slips pasted on the policies of reinsurance are descriptive of the risk assumed by the re-insurer. The defendants are driven to take this ground because the reinsurer has insured the liability of the original insurer, whatever that he, unless in the contract of reinsurance there can be found some clause whereby the reinsurer stipulated that it assumed no risk, unless the original insurance contract contained tlie co-insurance clause. It is observed that the policies of reinsurance bear the following dates: That of-the Imperial is dated November 23, 1891, and those of the Boyal dated November 12. 1891, and December 26, 1891. The Frankonbusli and Borland policies are dated: October 12. 1891; November 19, 1891; February 9, 1892; February 11, 1892; February 26, 1892. Only one of the policies is dated before those of the Royal, and only two are dated before that of the Imperial. Three of them are dated after all of the policies of reinsurance were issued. The deseriplion of the risk in the reinsurance policies is that the Home Insurance Company are insured on $10.000 of their liability as insurers under tlieir various policies, issued to various parties, for various [700]*700amounts, and covering as follows: Ten thousand dollars on cotton in bales their own or held by them in trust or on commission while contained in the yard No. 1, Shippers’ Press, New Orleans, La. A part of this description is clearly inapplicable to the reinsurance, for the words “their own or held in trust or on commission” have no meaning as between the insurer and the re-insurer. The cotton itself was not the subject of insurance as between the insurer and reinsurer, but as between them the subject of insurance was the liability of the insurer, as an insurer, on cotton in yard No. 1, Shippers’ Press, owned or held in trust by the original insured. Now, this policy was issued to last for a year, and was intended to cover any liability that, the insurer during the year might assume as insurer of cotton in the designated press. It was not restricted to liability then existing, but extended to future liability which might be incurred by the Home Insurance Company on cotton in the Shippers’ Press, yard 1. What was the stipulation as to the risk assumed by the reinsurer? He agreed to cover any risk which the insurer might be willing to take, for that is the meaning of the words, “This policy to be subject to the same risks, conditions, valuations, indorsements, and modes of settlement as are or may be assumed and adopted by the reinsured, and the loss, if any, payable pro rata at the same time and in the same manner as by said company,” etc. Any printed stipulation having reference to the property itself, or the cash value thereof, cannot be applied to the contract of reinsurance between the reinsurer and the reinsured, because the property is not the subject-matter of their contract.
It is true that the contract of reinsurance must apply to the subject-matter of insurance specified in the original policy; that is to say, to cotton in Shippers’ Press, yard 1, and to risks of the same kind as those specified in the original policy. In other words, if the original policy is a contract of. insurance against loss by fire, the reinsurance must be against loss by fire, and not against loss by tempests or storms on land or at sea. But the specific risk'in the policy of reinsurance need not be identical with that in the original policy; that is to say, an. original insurance may be effected on a vessel for six months, with úse of all of the ports of the world except those of Texas. The reinsurance may be for a single voyage within the bounds not prohibited, and for a less amount. This was decided in the case of Philadelphia Ins. Co. v. Washington Ins. Co., 23 Pa. St. 250. Such is the law in the absence of stipulations contained in the lower printed slip annexed to the policies sued on. That slip provides that this policyis to be subject to the'same risks, conditions, and valuations, indorsements, etc., that are or may be assumed or accepted by the original insurer. I-Ience reinsurance under these policies is reinsurance against any of the fire risks assumed by the original insurer, in any of its policies on cotton in Shipper’s Press, yard 1, and on the same conditions as those contained in any of the original policies issued by the original insurer, to the original assured, on cotton thus located. This clause gives to the original insurer the privilege of taking such risks on cotton in the designated place as it may choose.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Klein v. City of Seattle
77 F. 200 (Ninth Circuit, 1896)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 F. 698, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2898, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/imperial-fire-ins-co-of-london-v-home-ins-co-of-new-orleans-ca5-1895.