Babcock v. Montgomery County Mutual Insurance
New York Supreme Court
Demurrer to declaration. The action was on a policy of insurance dated Sept. 21,1844, by which the defendants insured the plaintiff for the term of five years, to the amount of $1020 on his dwelling house No. 1 and wood shed, $300 on his dwelling house No. 2, and in different sums upon other buildings, amounting, in the aggregate, to $2000, against all losses or damage which the plaintiff might sustain “ by, or by reason, or by means, of fire, not exceeding in the whole the…
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Demurrer to declaration. The action was on a policy of insurance dated Sept. 21,1844, by which the defendants insured the plaintiff for the term of five years, to the amount of $1020 on his dwelling house No. 1 and wood shed, $300 on his dwelling house No. 2, and in different sums upon other buildings, amounting, in the aggregate, to $2000, against all losses or damage which the plaintiff might sustain “ by, or by reason, or by means, of fire, not exceeding in the whole the sum of $2000, nor exceeding two-thirds of the value of the said property which may be so lost or damaged,” The following…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court, Pratt, J.
This action was brought upon a policy of insurance against loss by five. The wovd fire, in contracts of this kind, should be construed in its ordinary signification. (6 Bac. Abr. 658.) It should not be confined to any technical and restricted meaning which might be applied to it upon a scientific analysis of its nature and properties, nor should it receive that general and extended signification which by a kind of figure of speech is sometimes applied to the term; but it should be construed in its ordinary popular sense. Nor is the damage, for which fire insurance…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- City Fire Insurance v. CorliesNew York Supreme Court · 1839
3Cited by4 opinions
- Spensley v. Lancashire InsuranceWisconsin Supreme Court · 1882
- Smith v. McCluskeyNew York Supreme Court · 1866
- White v. Republic Fire InsuranceSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1869
- Scripture v. Lowell Mutual Fire InsuranceMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1852