Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance v. Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad

50 S.W. 281, 149 Mo. 165, 1899 Mo. LEXIS 15
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 30, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 50 S.W. 281 (Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance v. Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance v. Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad, 50 S.W. 281, 149 Mo. 165, 1899 Mo. LEXIS 15 (Mo. 1899).

Opinion

BRACE, P. J.

This is an appeal by the defendant railroad company from a judgment of the Jackson Circuit Court in favor of the plaintiff insurance company for the sum of $1,800.

Plaintiff’s cause of action is thus stated in the petition.

“Plaintiff alleges that the T. A. Miller Lumber Company is and at all times herein stated was a corporation duly organized and existing by law. That plaintiff Lumbermen’ 5 Mutual Insurance Company is, and at all times herein stated was, a corporation duly organized and existing by virtue of the laws of the State of Illinois and engaged in the business of insuring property owners against loss or damage by fire. That defendant, Nansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad Company, is, and at all times hereinafter stated was, a [169]*169corpqration, and was engaged -in operating a railroad through, the town of Ash Grove, in the State of Missouri, and was using and operating thereon steam engines and locomotives.
“That at the time of the issuing of the policy of insurance, hereinafter mentioned, and on the 6th day of April, 1894, the T. A. Miller Lumber Company was the owner of a certain stock of lumber, lath, shingles, sash, doors and other stock such as is usually kept for sale in country lumber yards, also of a certain brick office building and certain office furniture and fixtures therein contained, and also of certain lumber sheds, all situated on lots 2, 3, 4, 5, in Brok and Ralph Watkin’s Railroad Addition to the town of Ash Grove, Missouri. That on the 13th day of December, 1893, in consideration of a certain premium to it paid by said T. A. Miller Lumber Company, the Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company issued to said T. A. Miller Lumber Company a certain policy of insurance, insuring it against loss or damage by fire to the property hereinbefore specified, for the period of one year from said date, to the amounts and as follows: $2,000 on said described stock of lumber; $250 on said described brick office building and the furniture and fix-lures therein contained, and $250 on said described lumber sheds.
“That on the 6th day of April, 1893, and while said policy of insurance was in full force and effect, the said stock of lumber, laths, shingles, sash, doors and other stock in trade,. being of the reasonable cash value of $2,517.24, was wholly destroyed by fire, and said brick office building was damaged by fire to ■ the amount of $150, and said lumber sheds, being at the time of the reasonable cash value of $395.60, were wholly destroyed by fire.
“That the fire which destroyed and damaged said property was communicated thereto by a locomotive engine being used by defendant upon its said railroad.
[170]*170“That by reason of said fire said Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company became liable to pay to said T. A. Miller Lumber Company the sum of $2,400, and by virtue of the terms of said policy of insurance, which sum said Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company has long since paid. That upon the payment of said sum the said Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company became and was subrogated to all the rights of the said T. A. Miller Lumber Company against said defendant for the recovery of said sum of money, twenty-four hundred dollars, by reason of the destruction of said property by fire, communicated thereto by a locomotive engine of defendant as aforesaid.
“That by reason of all the premises aforesaid, an action has accrued to plaintiff against defendant, and plaintiff alleges that it has sustained damages in the sum of $3,013.42, for which it asks judgment, and for costs.”

To defeat a recovery upon this cause of action defendant relied upon two of the defenses set out in the answer, as follows:

Eirst. That “the said Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company seeks to recover in this action under and by virtue of an act of the Legislature of the State of Missouri, approved March 31, 1887, which is embodied in the Revised Statutes of said State of 1889 as section 2615 thereof, which act and section defendant avers is illegal, unconstitutional and void in that it seeks to deprive the defendant of its property without due process of law and is contrary to the provisions of section 30, article 2, of the Constitution of Missouri. That said act and section is illegal, unconstitutional and void in that it denies the defendant the equal protection of the law, contrary to the provisions of section 1, article 14, of the amendments of the Constitution of the United States; and further, in that it deprives defendant of its property without due process of law, contrary to the provisions of article [171]*1715 of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and of article 6 of said Constitution.
Second. “That the plaintiff, Lumbermen’s Mutual Insurance Company, had not at the time it claims in said petition to have insured the property of said T. A. Miller Lumber Company, nor at the time it claims to have paid the loss thereon, nor at any time between those dates, nor has it since complied with the provisions of the laws of Missouri or any of them in regal’d to the steps and action necessary and required therein to be taken by insurance companies organized under the laws of other States than Missouri before being allowed to do any insurance business or insure any property in said last named State; that the pretended policy of insurance issued by said insurance company on the property of said lumber company and referred to in said petition was issued in violation of the laws of Missouri and contrary and in opposition to the authority and policy of said laws and of said State; and that said insurance company is not entitled to plead or prove or to take or deprive any benefit from or under section 2615 of the Eevised Statutes of Missouri for 1889, or any other statute or law of said State.”

The case was tided before the court without a jury, and the refusal of the trial court to sustain either of these defenses, and the admission of some evidence alleged to be “in variance with and contrary to the allegations of the petition,” are the errors assigned for a reversal of the judgment.

(1) On the trial the plaintiff, over the objections of the defendant, was permitted to introduce evidence tending to prove that the policy of insurance in question, dated the thirteenth day of December, 1898, was issued from the office of the insurance company in Chicago, in renewal of a former policy issued from the same office, dated December 13, 1889, the application for which, signed by the treasurer of the lumber company, was made at the Chicago office. We do not find that this evidence is contrary to or inconsistent with the [172]*172allegations of the petition or that the court committed error in admitting it. It was simply evidence tending to show in detail how the ultimate fact charged in the petition was consummated.

(2)

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Bluebook (online)
50 S.W. 281, 149 Mo. 165, 1899 Mo. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lumbermens-mutual-insurance-v-kansas-city-fort-scott-memphis-railroad-mo-1899.