Parshall v. Mechanics' & Traders' Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 04 December 1922
• Docket Number: No. 14000.,14000.
• Citation: 245 S.W. 354
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Parties: PARSHALL v. MECHANICS' & TRADERS' INS. CO.

245 S.W. 354

PARSHALL v. MECHANICS' & TRADERS' INS. CO.

No. 14000.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

December 4, 1922.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; Thomas B. Buckner, Judge.

"Not to be officially published."

Action by Frank Parshall against the Mechanics' & Traders' Insurance Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Tyke, Snider & Hume, of Kansas City, for appellant.

C. S. Leonard, of Kansas City, for respondent.

BLAND, J.

This is an action upon a fire insurance policy insuring certain personal property in plaintiff's printing shop, located in the basement of 1120 McGee street, Kansas City, Mo. There was a trial before the court resulting in a judgment in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $237.07, and defendant has appealed.

The basement of the building ran from McGee street to an alley in the rear. There was a partition of heavy iron dividing the basement into two parts, the front part was occupied by plaintiff's printing shop and the rear by a garage. Plaintiff left his place of business on Saturday, February 13, 1915, and did not return until the following Monday morning, when he found that there had been a fire in the garage and water had flooded his premises injuring the property insured. The water came from a break in a water pipe that was attached to the basement ceiling. Near the partition another water pipe led off from the main one to plaintiff's toilet. Where the smaller pipe fitted into the main pipe there was a hole caused by the breaking of the smaller pipe where it joined the main pipe. No damage was done to the property directly by fire, smoke, or water thrown thereon by firemen, but only by water coming from this pipe.

As to what caused the break in the pipe, there is no substantial evidence. Plaintiff testified that he could not say of his own knowledge what caused the break. He testified that it appeared as though the firemen, in order to get into the garage where the fire was, had knocked down the iron partition, and he thought that the shaking and vibration caused by tile knocking down of the partition broke oft the pipe. What qualifications he had as an expert on iron or pipe is not shown. However, he introduced evidence of the testimony of Capt. Pelletier, taken at a former trial, at which time Pelletier testified that the firemen, on account of the water running from the pipe in plaintiff's place of business, broke down the door in order to get into it, and at...