Caldwell v. Dwelling House Insurance
Caldwell v. Dwelling House Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiffs’ barn and granary were insured by defendant for $550, and both were totally ■destroyed by fire on the morning of October 14, 1892, while covered by the policy. Plaintiffs gave a written notice of the fire to defendant on the following morning, and also prepared proofs of loss in proper form
The policy contained the following stipulations:
“In case of loss of damage under this policy the-insured shall give immediate notice thereof in writing-to this company, * * * and within thirty days-after the loss or damage by fire or lightning, shall render a statement to this company, signed and sworn to by said insured, stating,” etc.
“And the loss shall not be payable until after sixty days after the notice, ascertainment and satisfactory proofs of loss herein required have been received by the company at its his home office in Boston.”
“No suit or action to this policy for the recovery of any claim shall be sustainable in any court of law or equity, unless the insured shall have complied with all the foregoing requirements.”
Plaintiffs had judgment in the circuit court, from which defendant appealed.
The only point made in this court by appellant is-that the “proofs of loss” were actually received by it-“one day too late” to entitle respondent, under the-stipulations of the policy, to bring an action for the-
Appellant’s own witnesses testified that the registered letter was received at the postof6.ee in Boston at 6:45 A. m. of November 13, 1892, within thirty days specified in the policy. That it further appears that appellant’s mail clerk did not call for the letter at the postoffice until the next day, can not be imputed as the fault of the assured. The letter was, in fact, actually received at the postoffice at Boston, and ready to be delivered, on the day of its reception, if appellant had called for it that time; and it would be an unwarrantable construction of the stipulation in the policy to hold that appellant could rely on a delay beyond the time fixed therein, caused by failure on its part to demand a letter which had reached the postoffiee within the period limited in the stipulation, as a ground to defeat a recovery for a loss covered by its policy. As it appears, therefore, from the conceded evidence that the “proofs of loss” arrived at the postoffice in the city of Boston within the time fixed in the stipulation, supra, for rendering the statement to defendant,
Neither is there anything in Maddox v. Insurance Company, 56 Mo. App. 343, to sustain a contrary view. In that case the proofs of loss were not sent within the currency of the thirty day limit, although the assured had ample time given, upon a return to him of certain defective proofs, to comply with his policy in this respect. It was there said: “He failed to do so, and the proofs, owing to the admitted negligence of the plaintiff' or his agent, did not reach the defendant until eighty-four days after the destruction of the premises by fire.” In the present case, the facts, as we have seen, were essentially different; nor was there any negligence on the part of the assured. The result is that the judgment herein will be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.