Manchester Fire Assurance Co. v. Feibelman

118 Ala. 308
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 15, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 118 Ala. 308 (Manchester Fire Assurance Co. v. Feibelman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Manchester Fire Assurance Co. v. Feibelman, 118 Ala. 308 (Ala. 1897).

Opinions

HARALSON, J.

1. After this case was reversed on a former appeal, defendant filed additional pleas, numbered 193, 26, 27, 28 and 29. Demurrers Avere interposed to these pleas, which Avere sustained. There Avas no error in such rulings. The first four of these pleas, as admitted by counsel for appellant, raise substantially the same questions, — that the plaintiff had never procured a license under the laws of Alabama, to carry on the business in AAdiich he was engaged, down to and including the time that the property insured was injured or destined by fire. We held in our former opinion, and fail to see that we were not correct in so holding, that whether the plaintiff had a license to retail or not, had nothing to do Avith the insurance. — Feibelman v. Manchester Fire Ins. Co., 108 Ala. 180, 197.

The original complaint in the cause Avas filed Avithin tAvelve months after the fire occurred. The 3d count, filed by leaAre of the court, more than tAvelve months thereafter, is an amendment of the original complaint, and related hack to the date of its filing. There Avas no error, therefore, in sustaining the demurrer to the 29 th plea. — Evans v. Richardson, 76 Ala. 329.

The 8th plea seems not to haAre been passed on in the former appeal. The demurrer to it was properly sustained. It is not an anSAver, as it professes to he, to the entire complaint. In the policy, separate Araluations are made of the fixtures, wines, liquors, etc., and the pool tables, and the complaint so describes them. The insurance as to each was divisible.- — W. A. Co. v. Stoddard, 88 Ala. 606; Feibelman v. Manchester, &c., 108 [323]*323Ala. 180, 197; Merrill v. Ag. Ins. Co., 73 N. Y. 42; Schuster v. The Dutchess County Ins. Co., 102 N. Y. 260.

2. The case was tried on issue joined on the pleas to which demurrers were overruled,- — the 1st, 2d, 5th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, — and on issue joined on the replications to the 13th plea. The 1st and 2d of these pleas are the general issue. The 5th sets up, that the plaintiff executed a mortgage on three pool tables, a part of the property insured, which rendered the policy void under the conditions thereof, as to said pool tables: We may pay no further attention, however, to this plea, since there was no effort on the part of the defendant to sustain it. The same thing is true of the 17th plea. The 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th set up that the plaintiff did not own the policy upon which the suit was brought, and that she was not, at the time of the alleged loss or damage by fire, the owner of the vinous, sprituous and malt liquors, claimed in the complaint to have been destroyed.

The 13th plea set up, that the plaintiff never made proof of loss as required by the policy under which she sues. There were two replications filed to this plea, the one on the 24th, and the other on the 25th May, 1893, the latter being an amended replication. The first was defective, and was afterwards withdrawn. The amended replication set up, “that on, to-wit, the 21st of January, 1892, after the fire occurred, the defendant’s adjuster, one A. S. Weatherbee, visited the place where the fire occurred, and examined the plaintiff’s books of account, and had plaintiff’s agent make an affidavit of the amount of loss and ascertained the loss to be the sum sued for, and offered to pay plaintiff’s agent a sum less than the amount claimed under the policy.”

The replications afterwards filed to this plea were: “3. That said defendant by and through its adjuster , Weatherbee, refused and repudiated the payment of said policy on, to-wit, January 21, 1892, and stated to plaintiff’s agent, that (the) town authorities had informed him that the plaintiff’s said agent would be arrested for setting fire to, and burning the property insured in the policy sued on. 4. That subsequent to the fire, to-wit, oh the 21st day of January, 1892, the defendant’s adjustre, one Weatherbee, visited the place where the fire oc[324]*324cur red, examined the plaintiff’s books of account, and ascertained (the) loss; had plaintiff’s agent to swear to the itemized statement of account of loss, and plaintiff’s agent asked him, Weatherbee, whether or not he would discount the amount ascertained, to-wit, the sum sued for, or take the 60 days under the policy, and he then told (the) agent to call at a late hour in the day, and he would give him a check for the amount, and when plaintiff’s agent, as per understanding, called on him, he then refused to pay anything on said policy. 5. That said Weatherbee, subsequently offered to pay plainufrs agent a sum less than the amount claimed undm* the policy, and this subsequent to the loss by fire and within sixty days from the date of the fire. 6. That defendant denied its liability under said policy, subsequent to the fire and within sixty days from the date of the fire. 7. That subsequent to the loss by fire, the defendant’s adjuster, one Witherbee, visited the place where the fire occurred, examined the plaintiff’s boots of accounts and ascertained the loss, had the plaintiff’s agent to swear to the itemized statement of account, and told plaintiff’s agent to return that evening, and he wouhl let him know whether he would give a draft for the amount ascertained to be due under the policy or take the usual sixty days, and plaintiff’s agent called that evening, to-wit, January 21st, 1892, and the said Weatherbee told him that the company would not pay anything; that the town authorities Avould have him arrested for arson.”

The defendant filed a rejoinder to the first of these two replications, Avhich, on motion of plaintiff, AAras stricken out. Subsequently, the defendant filed several rejoinders to these replications, to which plaintiff demurred, and the demurrers Avere sustained. The ruling on these demurrers is not questioned in the assignment of errors.

It Avill be seen, that the real issues are the pleas of the general issue, on Avhich issue Avas taken; on joinder of issue to the 10th, 11th, 12th and 16th pleas, and the replications of the plaintiff to the 13th plea, on AAdiich issue was also taken.

3. If the objection to the introduction to the power of attorney by H. A. to M. J. Feibelman, was techni[325]*325callv well taken, in that the power was limited to the conduct of the business by the latter for the former, as his general agent, and did not extend to making a sale of. the property, and that its execution was not duly proved, thé action of the court in overruling it was error without injury. The testimony tended without conflict to show, that there ivas a bill of sale of the property covered by the policy to plaintiff, signed by H. A. Feibelman, the insured, and that he, being in Birmingham at the time, knew that M. J. Feibelman had transferred the policy in his name to plaintiff. This was a ratification of the transfer. Besides, this transfer was made on the 1st of January, 1892, and on the 5th of January, thereafter, the insurance company gave its consent to the transfer by indorsement regularly and duly entered on the policy.

4. The policy contained a list of the property insured, by separate valuations, — “$G00 on his (assured’s) fixtures, side-board, glasses, beer cooler, screen, cash register, show cases and other fixtures; $200 on his pool tables, being $100 each; $700 on his stock of wines, brandy, beer, tobacco and cigars, and such other merchandise, not more hazardous, as is usual in this trade, all contained” in the building described. The witness, M. J.

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

Related

Walsh v. Chubb
N.D. Alabama, 2022
National Security Fire & Casualty Co. v. Minchew
372 So. 2d 324 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1978)
Lunsford v. Howard
158 So. 2d 904 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1963)
Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Clark
61 So. 2d 19 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1952)
Creem v. Northwestern Mutual Fire Ass'n
56 P.2d 762 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1936)
Hart v. North British Mercantile Ins. Co.
162 So. 177 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1935)
Pearce v. Hubbard
135 So. 179 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1931)
Great American Ins. Co. v. Pearson
127 So. 233 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1930)
Martino v. Phoenix Fire Ins.
120 So. 511 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1928)
Willoughby v. Willoughby
82 So. 168 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1919)
Portsmouth Cotton Oil Refining Corp. v. Madrid Cotton Oil Co.
77 So. 8 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1917)
Alabama G. S. R. R. v. Flinn
74 So. 246 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1917)
E. H. Emery & Co. v. American Insurance
177 Iowa 4 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1916)
Waltz v. Silveria
145 P. 169 (California Court of Appeal, 1914)
Southern Railway Co. v. Cunningham
44 So. 658 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1907)
Goorberg v. the Western Assurance Co.
89 P. 130 (California Supreme Court, 1907)
Nelson v. First National Bank of Montgomery
139 Ala. 578 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1903)
Hanover Fire Insurance v. Crawford
121 Ala. 258 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1898)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
118 Ala. 308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manchester-fire-assurance-co-v-feibelman-ala-1897.