Heuer v. North Western National Insurance Co. of Milwaukee

Citations

• 144 Ill. 393
• 19 L.R.A. 594

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance—against loss by fire — exemption from liability for loss by explosion. A clause in a policy of insurance against loss by fire, that the company shall not be liable for any loss caused by explosion of any kind, unless fire ensues, contemplates the existence of more than one kind of explosion, and is broad enough to include an explosion produced by the ignition and combustion of the agent of explosion as well as an explosion without combustion.</p> <p>2. So where an explosion was produced by the lighting of a match in the basement of a building which was filled with illuminating gas, causing the falling of the floor of the store above where the insured had his goods, and there was no damage to the goods by the actual burning or scorching of them, but they were injured by the falling of the floor, it was held, that the insurance company was not liable under a policy containing such an exemption clause for the damage to the goods so resulting.</p> <p>3. Same — determining whether a loss is caused by fire or explosion within the meaning of the policy. It is a well-settled principle in. the law of insurance, that the proximate and not the remote cause of the loss must be regarded in order to ascertain whether the loss is covered by the policy or not. If a lighted match is applied to a keg of powder or to illuminating gas confined in a room, and an explosion thereby occurs which causes damage, but is not followed by combustion, the explosion will be the proximate cause of the injury, and the lighted match only the remote cause. In such case the lighted match is not a fire in the meaning of a policy of insurance against loss by fire.</p> <p>4. The determination of the question whether a loss is attributable ^ to fire or to explosion will sometimes depend upon the further question, whether the fire is an incident to the explosion, or whether the explosion is an incident to the fire. The effects of explosion will be included in the loss occasioned by a precede