Johnson v. Capital Fire Insurance

Citations

• 218 Pa. 421
• 67 A. 748
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 538

Syllabus

<p>Trial — Charge—Failure to object — Inadvertent error — Harmless error — - Insurance.</p> <p>In an action on a policy of fire insurance it appeared that the limit of the defendant's liability under the terms of the insurance policy was the actual cash value of the building insured, not in any event to exceed “what it would cost the insured to repair or replace the same with materials of like kind and quality.” At the trial the court used the word “restore” instead of “repair” in the charge, but the trial judge’s attention was not called to the mistake at the time. Held, that the mistake was an inadvertent error which would have been corrected, and that it was not a ground for reversal.</p> <p>A party may not sit silent and take his chances of a verdict, and then if it is adverse complain of a matter which if an error would have been immediately rectified and made harmless.</p>