Weisenberger v. Harmony Fire & Marine Insurance
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the District Court of Allegheny county : No. 148, to October and November Term 1867. This was an action of assumpsit, brought to April Term 1865, by Philip Weisenberger and others, trading as Weisenberger, Fisher & Co., against the Harmony Eire and Marine Insurance Company of New York, on a policy, not under seal, to recover for the loss of a quantity of oil destroyed by fire on the 2d of February, at the Keystone Oil Refinery, Pittsburg.
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Error to the District Court of Allegheny county : No. 148, to October and November Term 1867. This was an action of assumpsit, brought to April Term 1865, by Philip Weisenberger and others, trading as Weisenberger, Fisher & Co., against the Harmony Eire and Marine Insurance Company of New York, on a policy, not under seal, to recover for the loss of a quantity of oil destroyed by fire on the 2d of February, at the Keystone Oil Refinery, Pittsburg. On the trial the plaintiff gave in evidence the policy, dated April 18th 1864, for insurance to the amount of $4000 “ on refined oil in barrels…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, January 7th 1867, by
Thompson, C. J.
It has been often said that a policy of insurance, with its clauses, conditions and stipulations, is the law of the legal relation between the insurers and insured, by which their mutual rights and liabilities are to be understood and measured : 4 Wright 289. In this respect an insurance is like other contracts, liable to be reformed on account of accident or mistake, and set aside for fraud; so a latent ambiguity may be explained by extrinsic testimony, and terms of art, commerce of trade defined by the same process.…
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