West Branch Insurance v. Helfenstein
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Common Pleas of Northumberland county. This was an action of assumpsit, brought by Edward Helfenstein, to October Term 1861, against the West Branch Insurance Company, to recover the amount of a loss sustained by him in consequence of the burning of a frame storehouse and a lot of merchandise, alleged to have been covered by a policy of insurance, dated July 31st 1861. To a declaration in the usual form the defendant pleaded non assumpsit, payment, and payment…
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Error to the Common Pleas of Northumberland county. This was an action of assumpsit, brought by Edward Helfenstein, to October Term 1861, against the West Branch Insurance Company, to recover the amount of a loss sustained by him in consequence of the burning of a frame storehouse and a lot of merchandise, alleged to have been covered by a policy of insurance, dated July 31st 1861. To a declaration in the usual form the defendant pleaded non assumpsit, payment, and payment with leave, &c., and on the issue thus made up, the parties went to trial. The defence was, that the plaintiff had…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered,
by Woodward, J.
Assenting fully to the main proposition of the plaintiff in error, that a policy of insurance, with all its clauses, conditions, and stipulations, is the law of the relation between insurers and the assured, by which their mutual rights and liabilities are to be defined and measured, we are, notwithstanding, unable to construe certain clauses of the policy now before us, in the manner suggested on the part of the plaintiff in error.
The provision which forbids an assignment of the policy without the knowledge and assent of the company is…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Maryland & New York Coal & Iron Co. v. WingertCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1849
3Cited by13 opinions
- Imperial F. Ins. v. DunhamSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1888
- La Bonte v. Mutual Fire & Lightning InsuranceMontana Supreme Court · 1925
- JOHNSON v. CSAA GENERAL INSURANCE CO.Supreme Court of Oklahoma · 2020
- Bemis v. Harborcreek Mutual Fire InsuranceSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1901
- National Memorial Services, Inc. v. Metropolitan Life InsuranceSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1946
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