Brecht v. Law Union & Crown Ins.

Citations

• 153 F. 452
• 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5104

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Avoidance oe Policy foe Breach of Condition — Title of Insured.</p> <p>The owner of a sawmill property, including the mill, machinery, and logs and lumber, the personalty being subject to a chattel mortgage, entered into a contract with the chattel mortgagee by which he purported to convey and transfer to said mortgagee all of the property, both personal and real, with authority to take possession and to operate the mill and to sell any and all of the property, the owner agreeing to execute conveyances of the same as required by him. In consideration of such contract the grantee agreed to pay certain indebtedness of the owner, including his own, and to apply to that purpose all sums received from the operation of the mill or sales of the property, after deducting expenses, the surplus, if any, to be paid over to the grantor. Held, that such contract was not a mortgage, but a trust agreement or deed, which vested the absolute title to the property in the grantee, and that it avoided a policy of insurance previously issued to the grantor on the property containing a provision that it should be void if his interest in the property should be or become other than unconditional and sole ownership.</p>