Havens v. The Germania Fire Insurance Company

• Decision Date: 25 June 1894
• Parties: Havens et al. v. The Germania Fire Insurance Company et al.; Sage et al., Appellants
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

27 S.W. 718

123 Mo. 403

Havens et al. v. The Germania Fire Insurance Company et al.; Sage et al., Appellants

Supreme Court of Missouri

June 25, 1894

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from Jackson Circuit Court.

STATEMENT.

This appeal is a dispute between two parties of defendants in a suit upon certain fire insurance policies.

The original plaintiffs were Havens and Richardson, but for brevity we shall refer to them often as "Havens & Company;" and to the present appellants as "Sage & Company." We shall also occasionally treat the fire insurance companies as one group.

Havens & Company began the suit by a petition to recover upon the policies, whose general features will be mentioned later. Mr Sage and certain other parties claiming under him were made defendants, along with the insurance companies.

Mr Sage filed a separate answer, asserting an interest in the proceeds of the policies, based on facts hereafter stated. The other defendants, who claimed rights under Sage, set up their respective interests. They need not be particularly described.

The answers of the insurance companies were in the nature of cross bills of interpleader, declaring that Havens & Company and Sage & Company both laid claim to the proceeds of the funds sued for, and that the companies were ready to pay to the parties entitled thereto any sums justly due under the policies. These answers also set up facts, referred to further along, bearing on the extent of liability of defendants under the terms of the policies.

The cause was tried by the court, and the following judgment rendered:

"And now come all the parties to this suit by their respective counsel, and trial by jury having been waived, and this cause having been submitted to the court for trial, and the court being well advised in the premises, doth find that the property described in plaintiffs' petition was insured by the above named insurance companies, in and by their five written policies of insurance, against loss or damage by fire, as follows:

"On the two story, frame, shingle roof building and additions and one story, frame engine and boiler house adjoining, occupied as a steam flouring mill in Waldron, Missouri, in the following amounts:

The Hartford Fire Insurance Company

$ 500

City of London Fire Insurance Company

250

Connecticut Fire Insurance Company

750

AEtna Fire Insurance Company

500

Germania Fire Insurance Company

750

$ 2,750

"And on the fixed and movable machinery, shafting and gearing, except boiler and engine connections, contained in the above described building in the following amounts:

The Hartford Fire Insurance Company

$ 1,500

City of London Fire Insurance Company

750

The Connecticut Fire Insurance Company

650

AEtna Fire Insurance Company

1,250

$ 5,650

"That said insurance was effected for the use and benefit of plaintiffs to the extent of their interest in said property, and, after satisfying the same, then for the use and benefit of defendant Theodore B. Sage.

"That at the time of the hereinafter mentioned fire the interest of said plaintiffs in said property was in the sum of $ 4,250 and interest, and after satisfying the same and subject to the same the equitable title to said property then belonged to said defendant Sage.

"That on the sixth day of January, 1885, said property was damaged and destroyed by fire, and the value of the property so damaged and destroyed the court finds to be $ 3,695, as follows: Buildings, $ 1,575; machinery, $ 2,120; and the court arrives at this finding of values as follows:

"The court finds that the total value of the mill property, including adjoining buildings and machinery and fixtures and the ground on which it was situated at the time of the issuance of the policies was $ 4,250. That one building, which was not insured and was not destroyed by fire, was of the value of $ 300. That the land after the fire was of the value of $ 100. That the engine in the mill, which was not insured, was of the value of $ 300. That the machinery which had been taken out of the mill while the same was undergoing repairs and which was not destroyed by fire was of the value of $ 380.

"And the court finds that the defendant Sage, after the issuance of the policies, had put on the mill building in pursuance to and in compliance with his contract with plaintiffs, repairs to the value of $ 525 in improvements, which were destroyed by fire.

Total value of property

$ 4,775

Deduct as above

1,080

Leaving the value of the property destroyed by fire

$ 3,695

"That said policies sued on were at the time of the fire in force and the plaintiffs and said defendant Sage had prior to said fire and to the commencement of this suit complied with all the conditions thereof on their part.

"That said defendant insurance companies are indebted to plaintiffs in the sum of $ 3,695 with interest thereon from April 22, 1885, in the proportion that the respective amounts of their policies of insurance and the loss thereunder as above set forth bear to each other.

"The court further finds that after the tenth day of January, 1885, said Sage assigned and delivered said policy so issued by the Hartford Fire Insurance Company to defendant Harrington to secure an indebtedness to him, said Harrington, of $ 500, and that afterward defendant Sage assigned and delivered the policy so issued to him by said AEtna Fire Insurance Company to defendant McAdam, and also assigned in writing to said McAdam said policy so issued by said Hartford Insurance Company for the purpose of securing the payment to said McAdam of a debt due by him, said Sage, to said McAdam, of dollars.

"It is therefore considered, ordered and adjudged that said plaintiffs, A. B. Havens and George C. Richardson, have and recover of and from said defendant Hartford Fire Insurance Company the sum of $ 959.55. And have and recover of and from the said defendant City of London Fire Insurance Company the sum of $ 497.80. And have and recover of and from the said defendant Connecticut Fire Insurance Company the sum of $ 761. And have and recover of and from the said defendant the AEtna Fire Insurance Company the sum of $ 959.55. And have and recover of and from the said defendant the Germania Fire Insurance Company the sum of $ 1,015.85, with interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum from this date, together with the costs of this action, and that execution issue therefor.

"That said defendants, Theodore B. Sage, D. H. McAdam and L. Harrington, have and recover of and from the said defendant insurance companies nothing, and that their cross bill and petition in their answers herein contained be dismissed."

From that judgment, Messrs. Sage and McAdams appealed, after moving unsuccessfully for new trial.

At the trial, the value of the items of property insured formed a subject of contention, on which the evidence was very conflicting; but with that exception the controlling facts were not seriously controverted and many of them are mutually admitted here.

The following is a brief outline of the facts:

In 1882 the plaintiffs, Havens and Richardson, bought the "Waldron Mill," in Platte county, Missouri, paying therefor the sum of $ 6,000; $ 3,000 cash and one hundred and sixty acres of land, valued at $ 3,000. They improved the mill by adding new machinery and a new siding, at some cost. The mill was a frame building; the main part, thirty-two by forty but, with a wing on either side sixteen by thirtytwo feet, and a coal and engine room in the rear thirty by forty feet. The main building was two and onehalf stories high and the wings, one story. The mill had a capacity of about one hundred barrels per day. They ran the mill from July, 1882, till June, 1884, when they negotiated a sale to Mr. Sanders for $ 6,000, but the sale was never consummated. November 8, 1884, they entered into a contract of sale with Mr. Sage, one of defendants in this action, by the terms of which he agreed to pay Havens & Richardson $ 4,250 for the mill, warehouse, machinery, etc., and to expend at least $ 2,000 in changing it from the burr process to the roller process; to complete the alterations within forty days, and to keep the property insured to the amount of $ 4,250 in companies acceptable to Havens & Richardson (loss payable to them), until payment of the purchase price.

Sage took possession on November 16, 1884; began work under his contract and effected the following insurance:

Germania Fire Insurance Company:

"$ 750 on the two-story frame shingle roof building and additions, and one-story frame engine and boiler house adjoining, occupied as a steam flouring mill.

"$ 1,250 on fixed and moveable machinery, shafting and gearing, except boiler and engine and connections."

AEtna Fire Insurance Company:

"$ 500 on the two-story frame shingle roof building and additions, and one two-story frame engine and boiler house adjoining, occupied as a steam flouring mill.

"$ 1,500 on fixed and moveable machinery, shafting and gearing, except boiler, engine and connections."

City of London Fire Insurance Company:

"$ 250 on the two-story frame shingle roof building and additions, and one-story frame engine and boiler house adjoining, occupied as a steam flouring mill.

"$ 750 on fixed and movable machinery, shafting and gearing, excepting engine, boiler and connections."

Hartford Fire Insurance Company:

"$ 500 on the two-story frame shingle roof building and additions, and one-story frame engine and boiler house adjoining, occupied as a steam flouring mill.

"$ 1,500 on fixed and moveable machinery, shafting and gearing, except the boiler, engine and connections, contained in the above described buildings."

Making a total of $ 7,000 insurance. The Germania and ...