S. Oteri & Bro. v. Home Mutual Insurance
S. Oteri & Bro. v. Home Mutual Insurance
Opinion of the Court
The opinion and decree in this case were delivered by E. M. Hudson, Esq., Judge ad hoc, sitting in the place of Eogers, judge, recused.
This is an action by S. Oteri & Brother against the Home' Mutual Insurance Company for $1000, based upon a running or open policy of insurance. The policy is dated September 19th, 1870; it was intended to embrace “ all kinds of lawful goods and merchandise, laden or to be laden” on shipboard, at invoice cost and ten per cent, as interest might appear, for account of whom it might concern, beginning the adventure from and immediately after the loading thereof onboard of the vessel; but it expressly provides that the policy is made “ to cover all shipments made in accordance therewith,” and the insurance is declared to be “ on all shipments which may be hereafter endorsed on this policy. No risk binding unless endorsed on this book or approved by assurers.”
On the 26th January, 1876, the plaintiffs made application to the company for an endorsement of insurance to the amount of $1000 on this policy, of “one new sloop in tow of schooner J. Wood at and from New Orleans to Bay Islands,” employing for this purpose the usual blank form proper for making application for endorsement of insurance on this policy In
An examination of the policy leads us to conclude that, of itself, it insures nothing subsequent to its date; by its very terms it contemplates, under certain terms and conditions, the making- of future insurance on shipments of lawful goods and merchandise, laden or to be laden on shipboard; it is not even an absolute contract to insure any shipments of the insured; it is, at most, a promise or contract to make insurance on shipments of certain things, goods and merchandise, under the conditions expressed in the policy; and, as to such future shipments, the policy was not to attach, the insurance was not to be effected,, until those conditions and terms were complied with. This agreement to insure was intended to cover only goods and merchandise from the time of loading the same on shipboard until they were safely landed, for which a premium in accordance with the rules of the board of underwriters at the time of shipment was to be paid, and such insurance was, by the terms of the policy, limited not aloné to all shipments made
Under such a policy, if the risk, for which application is made to the insurers, comes within the description of the policy, and the conditions of the policy are complied with, the insurers will be held; for the object and intention of making such a .policy is to hold the insurers to this extent. The parties themselves can make the endorsements or fill up the blanks of the policy only in such a manner as to be consistent with the policy. It certainly is not obligatory on the insurers to make an endorsement, unless it be required by the policy 5 for the insured cannot hold the insurers beyond the requirements which they themselves have made or stipulated.
The material question then to determine is, whether or not the company was under a contract, within any of the terms or conditions of the policy, to insure risks of the nature of that for which application was made by the plaintiffs; for unless the contract is contained in the policy, or a special contract is shown, none exists.
No special contract, outside of this open policy for insurance ■of the sloop, has been shown, nor is there anything in the record to prove that an officer of the company had the power to bind it beyond or contrary to the terms of this policy.
In vain we have scanned this policy with a view to discover any right of the plaintiffs to demand insurance thereunder of the risk in question. In no sense does the subject fall within the terms of the policy. The sloop cannot, iu any ordinary and usual meaning of our language, be considered goods or merchandise within the scope of the policy, and if it could be, it was not laden on board the schooner Jennie Wood, nor was it endorsed on the policy or the book attached to it, as required.' by the policy, indeed, the plaintiffs had no right to require the endorsement of this risk on this policy, and yet the application in express language requested that the endorsement of this risk be entered on this policy. No authority existed in
The judgment appealed from is correct, and it is, therefore^ affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.