Home Insurance Co. of New York v. Heck

Citations

• 65 Ill. 111

Syllabus

<p>1. Insubajstce—right to cancel policy. Where a policy of insurance against fire provided that the insurers might cancel the same on notice to the assured and a return of the unearned premium, it seems the mere fact that the property insured was in greater danger of fire when the offer was made to refund the premium than when the policy was issued, would not prevent the company from rescinding.</p> <p>2. But an insurer against fire can not, when the fire is approaching the property insured, under such a clause, cancel the policy; and when the danger is threatening and imminent from an approaching fire, the right to terminate the policy upon notice will not depend upon the intentions or good faith with which the agent of the insurer acts. And the fact that the property was destroyed by fire coming from a different quarter than that which caused apprehension at the time of giving notice of a cancellation of the policy, will make no difference, if the danger from that quarter was imminent at the time.</p> <p>3. Same—instruction. In such a case as this, an instruction that, if the agent of the company, upon examining the wood described in the policy, and the manner in which it was being cared for, honestly came to the conclusion that it was not being protected against the fires then burning in the surrounding clearings and forests, with that degree of care which a man of ordinary prudence and caution would exhibit in the protection of his own property under similar circumstances, and that in consequence of such fact, there was danger that the wood would be destroyed by said fires, then the agent was justified, for such reason, in terminating the policy by giving notice, etc., was held to have been properly refused as misleading, by taking from the jury all consideration of the facts existing at the time the fire was raging, and placing the right to cancel the policy upon the honest belief of the agent that the wood was not properly cared for.</p> <p>4. Removal op caus