St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Kelly
St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Kelly
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
March 13,1886, T. C. Kelly was engaged in selling agricultural implements, wagons, buggies, and other articles usually kept and sold in connection therewith, at Marysville, Marshall county, and on that day obtained from the plaintiff a policy of insurance indemnifying him against loss or damage by fire on his stock of goods in the sum of $1,500. He had other insurance of $1,000 on said stock, and also $500 on his building in which his business was carried on and his goods stored. December 2, 1886, his building and stock were destroyed by fire. December 30> 1886, Kelly made and served his proof of loss upon the company, and, on its refusal to pay his loss, on May 11, 1887, commenced his action in the court below to recover the amount of his policy. September 21 thereafter his petition was amended, and on October 28 the company' answered by general denial, and on the 28th day of December thereafter the case was tried by the court and a jury. Verdict for the plaintiff for the face of said policy, and interest, amounting to $1,587.50. Motion to set aside the verdict and judgment, and for a new trial; motion overruled, and exceptions saved
I. It is alleged in support of the objection to the petition that the plaintiff therein pleads, first, ownership in the property destroyed; and secondly, a special insurable interest therein. The allegation in the petition is, that the plaintiff is the owner of the goods insured, destroyed by the fire, and had an insurable interest therein. Plaintiff claims that the clause “and had an insurable interest therein” modifies the former allegation of ownership, leaving the petition in legal effect with but the allegation that the plaintiff had an insurable interest in the goods destroyed; and then argues that such an allegation is but a legal conclusion, and therefore the plaintiff states no fact which shows he had a right to recover for the loss of the goods destroyed. We do not think that a fair construction of the petition. There is nothing upon the face of the petition which indicates that the plaintiff intended to assert distinct kinds or degrees of interest in the property destroyed, as ownership, and an insurable interest less than ownership. Having alleged ownership, it was useless to allege as an incident of such ownership an insurable interest, because ownership carries with it insurable interest; and yet that is all that the plaintiff seems to have intended. We look upon the words
II. The next assignment asserts that the court erred in overruling the demurrer of the defendant below to the evidence of the plaintiff below. The ground of this assignment is, that the testimony offered by plaintiff below proved that the property insured was not the property of T. C. Kelly, but was the property of several distinct firms, and consigned to him for sale on commission. An examination of the evidence in the record discloses that four witnesses produced by the plaintiff below — Kelly, himself; Fuller, a member of the firm of Deere, Mansur & Co., and manager thereof; their bookkeeper, George A. Parker; and their salesman, P. PI. Brace — all testified that the goods obtained from Deere, Mansur & Co. were purchased by Kelly, and were his goods. The books of Deere, Mansur & Co., which were produced in evidence, show the goods shipped by them to Kelly were sold and charged to Kelly. The bulk of all the goods in the Kelly stock at the time of the fire was from this company. And the goods charged up as destroyed in the proof of loss of plaintiff below were nearly all Deere, Mansur & Co. goods. It follows from the testimony of the witnesses named that there was evidence, and a good deal of it, tending to prove that the goods insured, and for the loss of which Kelly claimed the right to recover, were his property. It is true there is something in the evidence looking in the other direction, and tending perhaps to prove that the goods were commission goods.
It is the law of this court, that on a demurrer to the evidence of the plaintiff the trial court cannot weigh conflicting testimony, that being the province of the jury. (19 Kas. 382;
III. The plaintiff says the court erred in not permitting it to amend its answer to conform to the facts proven. The allegation of error in this assignment is based upon the idea that the evidence showed the goods insured to be commission goods. The verdict of the jury settled this error when they
IY. The plaintiff says the court erred in refusing to give to the jury the instruction asked by the defendant. Our remarks in relation to the allegation of error by the court in overruling the demurrer of the defendant to the plaintiff’s evidence also apply to this assignment. We do not think, under the circumstances of this case, the court would have been justified in giving the instruction asked by the defendant, and therefore the refusal to give it is not error.
Y. The plaintiff avers the court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict of the jury on the ground that the amount of the judgment, recovered by the plaintiff below, was too great. Whether the judgment, under the evidence in the case, was too great, was a question for the jury. The jury found that the plaintiff’s loss, for which he had not been paid by the other company having a risk on the same goods, was the full amount of the policy in suit. We think such a finding could be made under the evidence, and therefore we may not say it was error on the part of the court to approve such finding and refuse to set the verdict aside.
YI. Plaintiff alleges that the court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict of the jury on the ground of misconduct of the jury. It is said, by counsel for defendant below, that the evidence on the question, heard on the motion for new trial, is not all here. We think there is enough here to show that the alleged misconduct of the jury did not in any way prejudice the defendant. The meeting between the jurors and Kelly at the Catholic fair was a mere casual coming together. It was not by design. Kelly did not invite the jurors into the building where the fair was being held. One of the jurors invited him and others, and when in there, it was a juror that set up the drinks. There were but two glasses of beer taken by anyone, and that was twenty-four hours before the jury retired to consider the case. There was nothing said about the case by anyone at the time. It was not even mentioned ■
VII. The plaintiff says the court erred in submitting to the jury in the second instruction, the question of the legal effect of the evidence as to the contract with Deere, Mansur & Co. The court instructed the jury that the contracts between Kelly and Deere, Mansur & Co. were in form contracts of absolute purchase and sale, but informed the jury that whether there was an absolute sale of the goods by Deere, Mansur & Co. depended upon the intention of the parties to said contracts, and left the jury to determine the intention of the parties from all the evidence. We see no error in this.
We recommend that the judgment of the court below be affirmed.
By the Court: It is so ordered.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.