Liverpool, London & Globe Ins. Co. v. Verdier
| Decision Date | 10 January 1877 |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
| Parties | The Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company v. John A. S. Verdier and another |
Heard October 18, 1876
Error to Kent Circuit.
This is an action upon a fire insurance policy issued by plaintiff in error to defendants in error on their stock of goods. The policy contained a clause providing that in case of any other insurance on the property, prior or subsequent, the assured should be entitled to recover of this company no greater proportion of the loss sustained than the sum thereby insured should bear to the whole amount insured thereon "without reference to the date of the different policies, or their invalidity from want of notice of this or other insurance, or from the violation of any of their conditions, or the insolvency of any or all the other insurance companies." The loss was a partial one and amounted to six thousand eight hundred and eighteen dollars and twenty cents. There were two other policies about which there was no dispute. The real controversy relates to the question whether a policy in the Home Insurance Company should be treated as liable to contribute to the loss, in determining the amount for which plaintiff in error is liable under its policy. A tender was made of the amount for which plaintiff in error would be liable upon the basis of the Home policy contributing its proportion, which was refused, and this suit was thereupon brought. Verdier had before been in business alone and had taken out the Home policy in his own name. It was dated May 1, 1873, and ran one year from that date. May 4, 1874, Verdier and Brown entered into copartnership, joining their two stocks, under an arrangement that all policies should be assigned to the firm. Other policies were assigned accordingly, but the agents of the Home company not being found, this policy was not transferred to the firm. It was renewed May 1, 1874, as it stood, in Verdier's name. The premium was not paid until the day after the fire, which occurred June 4, 1874, but it was retained by the company and never returned. The policy in suit was issued to the firm on May 28, 1874. After the fire adjusters came together from all the companies, including the Home, but the latter company refused to pay, on the ground that its policy became forfeited by the change in title of the property. On payment by the other companies on the basis of the Home policy not contributing, defendants in error assigned said Home policy to one of them, in trust for the whole, under an agreement that they should prosecute that company to make it contribute its share, and that the amount recovered should be divided among them proportionately according to the amount each had paid towards the loss. The court below held plaintiff in error liable to pay without any deduction on account of the Home policy, and the company brought error.
Judgment reversed, with costs, and a new trial ordered.
Hughes, O'Brien & Smiley, for plaintiff in error.
Norris & Uhl, for defendants in error.
The facts in this case are stated with sufficient fullness in the opinion delivered when it was before us on a former occasion, and reported in 33 Mich. 138. The case has again been tried with the same result as before, and the question now is, whether any new showing was made on the second trial which will require a different conclusion.
The only new fact which appears to me of importance is, that...
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