Washburn-crosby Co. v. Home Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 04 September 1908 |
| Citation | 85 N.E. 592,199 Mass. 463 |
| Parties | WASHBURN-CROSBY CO. v. HOME INS. CO. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Hill, Barlow & Homans, for appellant.
L. S Dabney and Edmund M. Parker, for appellee.
No case has been cited by the plaintiff where the interest of a third person in property described in a policy of insurance has been held to be covered by the policy, in the absence of a provision in the policy that it is for the benefit of whom it may concern, or equivalent words. The words 'in trust or on commission' in policies issued to warehousemen or commission merchants have been held to be equivalent words. See, for example, Johnson v Campbell, 120 Mass. 449.
The policy in the case at bar in terms provides that it is a policy 'attaching upon the property, interests and legal liability of the Boston & Maine Railroad.' That is the equivalent of a statement that it is not a policy for the benefit of whom it may concern.
The plaintiff's contention is that this direct stipulation as to the character of the policy is overcome by the description of the contents of buildings which are insured by it. The argument put forward by its counsel is that the words 'or held by the insured as common carriers or warehousemen, or under any bill of lading, including all charges, their own advanced, or due to other lines of railroads or steamboats' constitute a class of insurance in addition to those described in the two previous classes, to wit: (1) 'Merchandise and property of all kinds (excepting furniture and fixtures and telegraphic instruments) belonging to the insured'; and (2) merchandise and property of all kinds (excepting furniture and fixtures and telegraphic instruments) 'for which the insured may be legally liable.' That may be conceded. But these words in this policy (which is in terms confined to 'the property, interests, and legal liability' of the insured) are to be construed to cover property (1) not owned by the insured; and (2) property for which the insured is not liable but in which it has an interest, held by it as common carriers or warehousemen, or under any bill of lading. It is further provided that the interest of the insured (the Boston & Maine Railroad) is to include all charges, their own, advanced, or due to other lines of railroads or steamboats. See, in this connection, Morrill & Whiton Constructions Co. v. Boston, 186 Mass....
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