Lamar Insurance Co. of New York v. McGlashen

Citations

• 54 Ill. 513

Syllabus

<p>1. Measure of damages—under a contract of insurance—as to the character of funds in which the loss was payable. Where, by the terms of a contract of insurance upon a cargo of corn shipped from Chicago to Montreal, the loss, if any, was payable to the Bank of Montreal, in funds current in the city of New York, it was held, that in estimating the liability of the insurers, a loss occurring, the premium upon gold should not be allowed in favor of the assured.</p> <p>2. Same—in respect to the value of the property insured. Under a policy of marine insurance, which fixes the value of the goods at the sum insured, in case of a partial loss, as where the property insured was grain, a portion of which reached the port of destination in a damaged condition, the actual loss sustained by the assured, as shown by the difference in the market price of sound grain, and the market price of the damaged grain, is not the true measure of the liability of the insurer.</p> <p>3. In such case, it is proper to inquire as to the difference between the market value, at the port of delivery, of grain in a sound condition, and the grain which has received damage against which it was insured, not, however, with the view to ascertain the dvrect amount of loss incurred by the assured, but to find the proportionate loss, that is, whether the difference between the sound and damaged grain was one-half, one-fourth, or one-tenth, etc. When this proportion of the loss is thus ascertained, the extent of the liability of the insurer is also ascertained, as he pays the same proportional part.</p> <p>4. The standard of the liability of the insurer in such case, however, the value of the goods insured being fixed in the policy, is the value so fixed, and not the value in the market, so that when the proportion of loss is ascertained by the difference between the sound and damaged sales, that gives the aliquot part of the original value, which may be considered as destroyed by the perils insured agains