Doelger & Kirsten, Inc. v. National Union Fire Insurance

What is the proper measuring stick to use in determining the “actual cash value” of wooden patterns of uncertain age, apparently more than thirty years old, last used in 1958 or 1959 and usable only for the producing of castings for alligator shears, an item of heavy industrial equipment for which there no longer seems to be much public demand?

Plaintiff contends that the proper measuring stick is a replacement cost. Evidence from an expert pattern-maker was offered that the cost of reproduction of the destroyed patterns was $12,100. Such cost of reproduction, the plaintiff spiritedly…