Barton v. Mercantile Insurance

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Dawson, J.;

This was an action to recover on a policy of fire and theft insurance on a secondhand automobile.

Plaintiff claimed title to the car by virtue of an exchange of property with one Lockard, a railway employee, its former owner. The trade occurred when the statute, R. S. 8-116, 8-117, was in force which made it unlawful to buy an automobile from anybody but a regular dealer without getting a bill of sale with identifying witnesses thereto and without notifying the sheriff and nearest police officer. Plaintiff wholly ignored the provisions of…