Coleman v. New York Bowery Fire Insurance

Citations

• 177 Pa. 239
• 35 A. 729
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 970

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Fire insurance — Personal property — Production of bills or reasonable effort as required by policy — Question for jury.</p> <p>In an action upon a policy of fire insurance on personal property where the policy requires that the insured shall furnish bills of purchase of the goods destroyed, or duplicates, it is the duty of the insured to comply with the terms of the policy, and if he is unable to produce the bills or their duplicates the burden is on him to show, at least, that he made a reasonable effort to do so, and was unsuccessful. In such a case the question whether it was possible or impossible for the insured to produce the bills or their duplicates is purely a question of fact to be determined by the jury from all the evidence before them.</p> <p>A policy of fire insurance on personal property provided that the insured should produce bills of purchase or their duplicates. The insured did not refuse the request of the insurance company to produce the bills or duplicates, but expressed his willingness to do so. He wrote several letters to the agent who had purchased the goods to go and collect the bills, and offered to pay the agent’s expenses, but it appeared that the agent had removed to a distant part of the country and engaged in another business, and was unwilling and refused to go. The insured himself did not know the names of the different persons from whom the goods were purchased, and his books and papers containing the information had all been destroyed by the fire. The purchasing agent was the only person who had such knowledge. Held, that the question was for the jury as to whether the insured had made a reasonable effort to produce the bills or duplicates.</p>