Wilson v. Germania Fire Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 17 November 1910 |
| Citation | 131 S.W. 785,140 Ky. 642 |
| Parties | WILSON v. GERMANIA FIRE INS. CO. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Bourbon County.
Action by Maggie Wilson against the Germania Fire Insurance Company. From a judgment granting insufficient relief, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.
Morgan & Darragh, for appellant.
Talbott & Whitley, for appellee.
By this action appellant sought to recover $700 upon a policy of insurance issued to her by appellee in 1903 upon two houses in the city of Paris; one of them being insured for $400, and the other for $300. The two houses were destroyed by fire a year later.
The policy contains the following provision: "This entire policy shall be void if the insured has concealed or misrepresented, in writing or otherwise, any material fact or circumstance concerning this insurance or the subject thereof; or if the interest of the insured in the property be not truly stated herein; or in case of any fraud or false swearing by the insured touching any matter relating to this insurance, or the subject thereof, whether before or after a loss." Appellee resisted a recovery on the policy upon the ground that the title to the property insured was not in the appellant as represented by her to its agent and stated in the policy, to which appellant replied that the character of her title or want of title to the property was known to appellee through its agent at the time of its issual and delivery to her of the policy by the latter, and that appellee was thereby estopped from denying her title. Other issues were made by the pleadings, but consideration of them will be unnecessary.
If appellant was without title to the property, the statement or representation in the policy that she was the owner thereof however honestly made, was untrue, and under the clause of the policy quoted above operated to invalidate it, unless, as alleged by her, appellee's agent was fully advised of her want of title and with such knowledge delivered to her the policy, in which event she would be entitled to recover on the policy to the extent of such insurable interest, if any, as she may have in the property. Appellant's evidence shows that the property in question was owned by her father, and that it was sold in 1901 for a tax of $4.32 due upon it from her father for the year 1900 and bought by the sheriff for the state and Bourbon county; that before the expiration of two years from the date of the sale of the property appellant attempted to redeem it by paying to the county attorney of Bourbon county the tax for the year 1900, together with the cost of sale interest, and penalty; that at the time of such payment she received from that officer an attempted transfer of the bid and claim of the county and state for and upon the property acquired by virtue of the tax sale referred to, and later obtained of the sheriff a deed purporting to convey her the property, the deed containing a recital of the foregoing facts and the additional fact that appellant's father the owner of the property, had allowed two years from the date of the sale to expire without redeeming it.
Though not alleged in her pleadings, it was testified by appellant that her father consented to her redemption of the property and the execution to her of the sheriff's deed, but the latter and his son testified that he accepted appellant's volunteered offer to redeem it, but did not consent to its conveyance to her by the sheriff, and that her offer to redeem it was agreed to by the father upon the condition that she should be reimbursed for the amount paid in redeeming it out of the rent of the property, which was done; but that when possession of the property was demanded of her, she refused to surrender it, and wrongfully continued to hold it. But, waiving this feature of the case, it is evident that the circuit court was not in error in holding that the deed from the sheriff did not pass to her the title to the property it purported to convey. Under the statutes of this state then in force, neither the sheriff nor county attorney had the authority to allow appellant, who was not the owner of the property, to redeem it from the state and county, purchasers at the sale, without the request in writing of the owner, her ...
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Henry Clay F. Ins. Co. v. Grayson Co. S. Bank
...43, 34 S.W. (2d) 938; Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Haas, 87 Ky. 531, 9 S.W. 720, 10 Ky. Law Rep. 573, 2 L.R.A. 64; Wilson v. Germania Fire Ins. Co., 140 Ky. 642, 131 S.W. 785; Niagara Fire Ins. Co. v. Layne, 162 Ky. 665, 172 S.W. 1090. So here, if the agent had assented to the transfer of the ......
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Henry Clay Fire Ins. Co. v. Grayson County State Bank
... ... Co. v. Howell, 107 ... S.W. 294, 32 Ky. Law Rep. 935; Manchester Assurance Co ... v. Dowell, 80 S.W. 207, 25 Ky. Law Rep. 2240; ... Germania Ins. Co. v. Wingfield, 57 S.W. 456, 22 Ky ... Law Rep. 457; Rhode Island U. A. v. Monarch, 98 Ky ... 305, 32 S.W. 959, 17 Ky. Law Rep. 876; ... v. Miller, 237 Ky. 43, 34 S.W.2d 938; ... Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Haas, 87 Ky. 531, 9 S.W ... 720, 10 Ky. Law Rep. 573, 2 L. R. A. 64; Wilson v ... Germania Fire Ins. Co., 140 Ky. 642, 131 S.W. 785; ... Niagara Fire Ins. Co. v. Layne, 162 Ky. 665, 172 ... S.W. 1090. So here, if the ... ...
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Niagara Fire Ins. Co. v. Layne
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National Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Hall
...ignorant, in the absence of some fraud practiced upon him, that the policy contained such a stipulation." In the case of Wilson v. Germania Fire Ins. Co., supra, the were very analogous to those of the instant case. There the father of the appellant was the owner of some land which had been......