Keystone Mattress & Spring Bed Co. v. Pittsburg Underwriters

Citations

• 21 Pa. Super. 38
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 303

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Fire insurance — Parol contract — Agent.</p> <p>There may be a parol contract of insurance to protect the insured between the taking of the risk and the issuing of the policy, but the company must have made the contract, and it must be clearly established. When made by an agent his power to bind the company must clearly appear. Such a contract cannot be sustained where it appears that it was made by the clerk of one company assuming to act for another company without any authority whatever.</p> <p>To constitute a verbal contract of insurance the minds of the parties must have met upon all the essentials of the contract, the testimony must make clear the subject-matter of insurance, the amount and limits of the risk, including its duration in point of time, and extent in point of hazard assumed, the rate of premium, and generally all the circumstances which are peculiar to the contract, and distinguish it from every other so that nothing remains to be done but to fill up the policy and deliver it on the one hand and pay the premium on the other. A recovery upon such a contract cannot be sustained where the testimony is silent as to the rate of premium and the period of time during which the insurance was to continue, and the only witness for the plaintiff testified that the insurance was on stock alone, while the plaintiff claimed for loss on machinery, office furniture and fixtures in addition.</p>