Kentucky & Louisville Mutual Insurance v. Southard

47 Ky. 634, 8 B. Mon. 634, 1848 Ky. LEXIS 152
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJuly 15, 1848
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 47 Ky. 634 (Kentucky & Louisville Mutual Insurance v. Southard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kentucky & Louisville Mutual Insurance v. Southard, 47 Ky. 634, 8 B. Mon. 634, 1848 Ky. LEXIS 152 (Ky. Ct. App. 1848).

Opinion

Chief Justice Makshall

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This action of covenant was brought by Southard to recover for the destruction by fire, of his dwelling house, insured by the Kentucky and Louisville Mutual Insurance Company. The policy on which the action is founded, insures the plaintiff to the amount of $7,000, against loss by fire from the 6th day of March, 1841, to the 6th day of March, 1847, upon his “ one story brick mansion house, situated, &c. adjoining the city of Louisville, lately occupied by James Southard, &c.,- a mortgage on the building and the land on which it stands, in favor of James Burks for $3,500. The aforesaid building is occupied as a dwelling house.” And it is provided that “ if the premises aforesaid shall at any time when a fire may happen, be occupied in whole or in part for purposes more hazardous than that which exists at the date hereof, unless liberty so to occupy, &c., be expressly given in writing on this policy, every clause, article, &c. to be wholly void. Reference being had to the application of the said Southard, and survey filed, for a more particular description, and as forming part of this policy.” In the condition, or terms annexed to the policy, it is stated, that insurance is in no case made on more than two thirds of the value of any building, and that in case of total loss, the company is not liable to pay more than two thirds of the actual value of the building at the time of loss.

[635]*635The declaration, after setting out the policy at large, avers that the said mansion house was at the date of the policy, and at the time of its destruction by fire, of great value, viz: of the value of $12,000 ; that the said house and the land on which it was situated, were at the date of the policy, and always thereafter, the property of the plaintiff, subject to. the mortgage to Burks, and to two mortgages subsequently made; that at the date of the policy, and afterwards until it was destroyed by fire, the said house was, and continued to be occupied as a dwelling house, and that it was not at the time of the fire, occupied for any pui’pbse more hazardous than existed at the date of the policy; that the plaintiff did, in good faith, make a fair and full representation to said company, of all facts and circumstances within his knowledge touching or affecting the risk of said property, and did fully and fairly disclose to them the true state of the title of said property and the incumbrances thereon according to his best information and knowledge; and did in all respects comply with the duties incumbent on him by law. The plaintiff then avers, that on the morning of the 1st of March, 1847, the said mansion house was burnt and wholly destroyed by fire, which fire was by misfortune, and was not caused by any design nor act of the plaintiff, nor occasioned by any public enemy, &c., but was occasioned by some accident or casualty in a manner unknown to him, and that he lost thereby a large sum, viz: $12,000; that notice was on the same day given to the company, with demand of payment, whereupon said company, by a resolution of the board of directors, determined to refuse payment, and had failed and refused, &c.

The defendants demurred to the declaration, and at the same time filed pleas 1, 2, 3 and 4, to which the plaintiff demurred. And the declaration having been adjudged good, and the pleas bad, time was given to the defendant to plead de novo. At a subsequent term the defendant filed pleas 5, 6 and 7; to the first of which the plaintiff replied by way of traverse, on which issue was joined; and to the two others he filed demurrers, which were sustained. The defendant then offer[636]*636ed plea number 8, said to be in lieu of his demurrer to» the declaration, which had been overruled. But tin? Court would not allow it to be filed, and the defendant having excepted to the refusal, atrial was had upon the issue made upon- the 5th plea, and a verdict and judgment were rendered for the plaintiff for $6,804 43l The defendants’ motion for a new trial was afterwards overruled, and they have brought the case to this-Court for revision, questioning by the assignment of errors; the correctness of the several opinions of the Court in overruling the demurrer to the declaration, and in sustaining the demurrers to pleas 1-, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and in refusing to allow plea- number 8 to be filed, as well as of the opinions given during the progress of the trial,, and on the motion- for a new trial.

if & demurrer & pleas be filed together, and the demurrer overruled to the declaration, and sustained to the pleas, and time taken to plead again. and new pleas offerd, the demurrer is waived to the declaration. When a plea upon which issue is made and tried contains the same matter of lojdefence as one which a demurrer is sustained, the error is not available.

We are inclined to the opinion, that the defendants must be understood to have waived their demurrer to the declaration-, and to-have withdrawn their four first pleas, by taking time to plead de novo, and by offering new pleadings under the privilege thus allowed.. But as the questions on- all of the demurrers were elaborately argued here, we shall- notice- them-ah.

The declaration seems to contain every a-verment, both affirmative and negative, which is- necessary either under the policy or the charter of the company, to show that the defendants were bound to pay the loss which had occurred. And the objection that the suit was-brought within the thirty days allowed to the company by the charter having been expressly waived in the Circuit Court, we are satisfied that upon- the face of the declaration the plaintiff shows a good cause of action. The matter of the 4th plea, so far as it is a valid defence, being contained in- the fifth, on which the cause was tried, the defendant was not prejudiced by the decision on the demurrer to- the- 4th plea, even if it was erroneous.

2. Then as to the three first pleas; they stand upon the assumption that the application of Southard for insurance, and the survey of the-building being referred to in the policy as forming a part of it, are to-be taken- as if they were actually inserted- in it, and that- every des[637]*637críptíve statement of the property contained In either of them, is by the law of insurance a warranty,, the breach or unti’UtNof which in any particular, whether material to the risk or not, avoids the policy.

The general rule in p©licie3 of insurance is, that a warranty must appear on the face of the policy and no instructionsareregarded as warranties, .unless, inserted»-'in r the. policy — they ar« merely representations.

But in the first place it is questionable whether even in the law of marine insurance, the principle which converts into a warranty every matter of fact or description relative to the property insured* which the parties have inserted in the policy, is to be applied to any such matter not inserted in the policy nor written upon it, though it be referred to therein as a paid of the policy. For the question might still arise, for what purpose is it made a part of the policy, and why was it not inserted in it? In ordinary contracts such matter* though actually inserted in the written memorial, lias not necessarily, the force of a covenant or warranty. In marine insurances, it acquires the force of a warranty from the very fact of being inserted in the policy.

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

Related

State Ex Rel. Pearson v. Hansen
401 P.2d 954 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1965)
Bates v. Hanks
90 S.W.2d 743 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1935)
Clark v. Fidelity & Deposit Co.
2 Balt. C. Rep. 269 (Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, 1903)
Goddard v. East Texas Fire Insurance
1 S.W. 906 (Texas Supreme Court, 1886)
Price v. Duncan
9 Ky. Op. 802 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1878)
Gerhauser v. North British & Mercantile Insurance
7 Nev. 174 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1871)
Dewees v. Manhattan Insurance
34 N.J.L. 244 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1870)
Commonwealth's Insurance v. Monninger
18 Ind. 352 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1862)
Howard Fire & Marine Insurance v. Cornick
24 Ill. 455 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1860)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 Ky. 634, 8 B. Mon. 634, 1848 Ky. LEXIS 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kentucky-louisville-mutual-insurance-v-southard-kyctapp-1848.