Fraim v. National Fire Ins.

Citations

• 170 Pa. 151
• 32 A. 613
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1376

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Fire insurance — Stipulation as to inflammable substance.</p> <p>A policy oí fire insurance on a building used for silver plating, contained the stipulation “this entire policy shall be void if (any usage or custom of trade or manufacture to the contrary notwithstanding) there be kept, used or allowed on the above described premises. . . . gasoline.” Plaintiffs used gasoline in their plating process, and for cleaning tools. They kept a barrel of it in an uninsured building about fifteen feet from factory. When gasoline was needed it was drawn from a barrel through a spigot and carried into the factory, where it was emptied into a kettle holding three or four gallons. On the night when the factory was destroyed by fire, there was no gasoline in the kettle, and the gasoline was not the cause of the fire. Held, that it was proper to admit evidence that gasoline was necessary in carrying on the business of silver plating, and that it was so used when the policy was issued, and continued to be used up to the date of the fire. It was also proper to refuse to charge that if the plaintiffs used gasoline on the premises during the life of the policy, the policy by its terms became void, and there could be no recovery.</p> <p>In a contract of insurance it is the intent of the parties to insure the subject of insurance as it necessarily is, and must continue to be, during the life of the policy.</p> <p>Evidence — Expert—Insurance.</p> <p>In an action upon a policy of fire insurance on a silver plating establishment, where the insurance company defends on the ground that gasoline was kept on the premises in violation of a prohibition of the policy, and plaintiff claims that the gasoline was necessary in silver plating, a witness for defendant is incompetent to testify as an expert as to the effect of the use of gasoline in cleansing in the process of silver plating, when the witness has already stated that he had never seen gasoline so used, and that for the same