Silverstone v. London Assurance Corp.

153 N.W. 802, 187 Mich. 333, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 588
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 23, 1915
DocketDocket Nos. 45, 46, 47
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 153 N.W. 802 (Silverstone v. London Assurance Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Silverstone v. London Assurance Corp., 153 N.W. 802, 187 Mich. 333, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 588 (Mich. 1915).

Opinion

Kuhn, J.

These cases had the consideration of this court in an opinion written by Mr. Justice Stone, reported in 176 Mich. 525 (142 N. W. 776). Having [335]*335been reversed, on the new trial the jury again found in favor of the plaintiff for the full amount claimed. An examination of this opinion will disclose the claims of the parties. On the new trial, as on the trial before, the testimony was very voluminous.

In the brief of counsel, in support of the contention that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, considerable reliance is placed upon the proposition that the plaintiff, in making the numerous statements with reference to his financial condition with banks and commercial agencies, did not include his claimed reserve stock, and that therefore it should be determined by this court that, as a fact, no such reserve stock existed. It may be said that it is a strange and extraordinary circumstance that, in seeking the establishment of credit, the plaintiff should have minimized his property assets, and thus obtained less credit than he might have been entitled to if a true statement of his property, as claimed by him, had been made. However, the question of the existence of this reserve stock and the plaintiff’s representations with reference thereto were questions of fact for the jury.

It appears that, before the last insurance was placed upon this stock, Mr. Homer McGraw, the agent who wrote the insurance, accompanied by Mr. England, a special agent who had been in the insurance business for many years, inspected 'the premises and the risk. Testimony additional to that had on the previous trial as to these statements made to the banks was introduced on this trial. But, after a careful review of the record, we are not satisfied that the verdict was so against the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to make it error for the trial judge to have denied the motion for a new trial based on that ground. As was said by Mr. Justice Bird, in B. Marx & Son v. King, 177 Mich. 662, at page 665 (144 N. W. 553, at page 554):

[336]*336“But we are of the opinion that the additions to the testimony did not so change the situation as to remove the question from the domain of fact. It was still a question for the jury, as there was conflicting testimony which, if believed, would justify the verdict.”

Two juries, duly qualified and disinterested, so far as it appears, have reached the same result, and as was said by Mr. Justice Steere in Krouse v. Railway, 170 Mich. 438, at page 442 (136 N. W. 434, at page 436):

“While not necessarily controlling,- this is significant. The court will only interfere when a verdict is so manifestly contrary to the overwhelming weight of evidence and so palpably wrong as to force the conviction that it was the result of either passion or prejudice or a dense incapacity to analyze testimony and discern the truth.”

See, also, the following recent decisions of this court: Gardiner v. Courtright, 165 Mich. 54 (130 N. W. 322); Fike v. Railroad Co., 174 Mich. 167 (140 N. W. 592); Druck v. Lime Co., 177 Mich. 364 (143 N. W. 59); McGary v. Motor Co., 182 Mich. 345 (148 N. W. 722).

The following requests to charge were submitted to the trial court by defendants’ counsel and refused:

“ (6) If you believe from the evidence that the plaintiff included in his proofs of loss articles of property not in the store at the time of the fire, with the intent to defraud the companies, this would avoid the policies, and the plaintiff cannot recover in these suits.
“(7) In determining whether plaintiff purposely swore falsely in his proofs of loss or before" the notary, it is your duty to consider his candor or lack of candor, his general attitude as a witness, and his desire or lack of desire to lay the facts fully before you, and the reasonableness of his story. * * * If you find that plaintiff included in his proofs of loss an exaggerated statement as to the amount of loss resulting from the fire, with intent to defraud the companies, this would avoid the policies, and the plaintiff cannot recover in these suits.”
“.(11) If you find that the burned area was entirely too small to contain any such amount of goods of the [337]*337cost claimed in the proofs of loss to have been totally destroyed, and that plaintiff intentionally, in his proof of loss, exaggerated the amount of and cost of the goods claimed to have been totally destroyed ($5,243), your verdict must be for defendants.”

We believe that the sixth request to charge was given in substance by the giving of defendants’ twelfth request to charge, which read as follows:

“The burden is on the plaintiff to satisfy you what was there. (I suppose that means what goods were there.) You are to say whether there was there, at the time of the fire, the items of property which are described in the plaintiff’s proofs of loss. If they were not all there at the time of the fire, and you are convinced that plaintiff knew it when he presented his proofs of loss, then your verdict must be for the defendants, even though some of the goods were there.”

The court also said:

“If you find from the proofs that the plaintiff purposely committed fraud by means of his proofs of loss or any other material proofs or proceedings, or swore falsely therein, or swore falsely as to the origin of the fire or as to the amount of value of the stock of fixtures he had in the store at 450 Gratiot avenue at the time of the fire, or while this insurance was in force, then said false and fraudulent statements void the policies in question. If this be your finding, your verdict must be rendered in favor of the defendant companies.”

With reference to the defendants’ seventh request to charge, it will be noted that it is in two sections. The substance of the second section was given in the portion of the charge above quoted.

The first section of the request attempts to single out the plaintiff from the other witnesses, and requests the jury to consider his candor or lack of candor, his general attitude, as a witness, his desire or lack of desire to lay the facts before them, and the reasonableness of his story. The court, in his charge, gave the [338]*338following general instruction as to the credibility- of witnesses:

“You are further instructed that the credibility of witnesses and the weight of the evidence are matters for your determination solely. If, during the trial, you are convinced that any witness has intentionally given false testimony, you have the right to reject the entire evidence of that witness, if you believe the witness unworthy of belief. You also have the right to separate truth, if any, from untruth, if any, and give such weight or credence to the evidence as you believe it deserves.”

In view of the general charge above quoted from, we do not think it was error for the court to refuse to single out a particular witness. See Frazer v. Haggerty, 86 Mich. 521 (49 N. W. 616).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 N.W. 802, 187 Mich. 333, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/silverstone-v-london-assurance-corp-mich-1915.