Palmer v. Continental Insurance Co.
Palmer v. Continental Insurance Co.
Opinion of the Court
The suit was brought on a policy of insurance to recover for loss by fire of part of the insured property. The judgment was for the plaintiffs. The appeal is from the judgment and from an order denying a new trial.
The policy was issued June 7, 1897, and purports to be “in consideration of twelve dollars paid, and the payment of installments, when due, as follows: Twelve dollars on the first day of June, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901,” etc. The actual consideration consisted of two notes made by plaintiffs to defendant March 27, 1897—one for $48, payable in installments as above stated; the other for $12.65, payable on or before Octo
The agreement in the policy that the company should not be liable for any loss occurring during default in payment of any note “given for the premium” in its terms applies to all notes coming under that description, including the note given for “first payment”; nor is such an agreement objectionable on the score of public policy or otherwise. On the contrary, agreements of this character in policies of insurance are quite common, and have been sustained in many cases: Joyce on Insurance, secs. 1204, 1205, 1209; Continental Ins. Co. v. Dorman, 125 Ind. 189, 25 N. E. 213; Gorton v. Insurance Co., 39 Wis. 121; Joliffe v. Insurance Co., 39 Wis. 111, 20 Am. Rep. 35; Williams v. Insurance Co., 19 Mich. 451, 2 Am. Rep. 95; Robinson v. Insurance Co., 76 Mich. 641, 6 L. R. A. 95, 43 N. W. 647; Wall v. Insurance Co., 36 N. Y. 157; Curtin v. Insurance Co., 78 Cal. 619, 21 Pac. 370. The only case cited to the contrary is that of Illinois Cent. Ins. Co. v. Wolf, 37 Ill. 355, 87 Am. Dec. 251. But the decision in that ease is obviously based upon a misapprehension of the principle invoked to sustain it, which, as stated by the court, is that, “in a deed for conveyance of lands the recital of payment of the consideration may be contradicted, provided it is not sought by such evidence to impair the effect of the deed as a conveyance.” The meaning of this, as explained in Kimball v. Walker, 30 Ill. 511, 512, cited in the decision, is that the effect of a deed or conveyance operating under the statute of uses cannot be destroyed by proving there was no consideration. But this principle could have no application to the case under consideration, where it was not sought to impair the effect of the policy in question, but to establish its real terms.
We concur: Cooper, C.; Gray, C.
For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion the judgment and order denying a new trial are reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- PALMER v. CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Insurance—Liability While Premium Note Unpaid.—Where an insurance policy provided that the insurer should not he liable while any note for premiums remained past due and unpaid, and the notes executed in payment of premiums contained a similar provision, and the property was destroyed while the first premium note was due and unpaid, the provision was valid, and the insured, by tendering the amount of the note, could not hold the insurer liable for the loss. Insurance—Acknowledgment' of Receipt of Premium.—Civil Code, section 2598, enacting that an acknowledgment in a policy of the receipt of a premium is conclusive evidence of its payment, so far as to make it binding, notwithstanding a stipulation that it shall not be binding until the premium is actually paid, applies only to a policy containing a stipulation that it shall not be binding until the premium is actually paid.