Orient Mutual Insurance v. J. Reymershoffer's Sons

Citations

• 56 Tex. 234
• 1882 Tex. LEXIS 23

Syllabus

<p>1. Underwriters’ contract with—Nature of goods—Usage — Evidence admissible—Payment of losses.— In a suit against an insurance company for the value of eighty barrels of honey insured by them, to be earned on a vessel from Tuspan, Mexico, to Galveston, Texas, and alleged to have been lost in a storm at sea, the defendants claimed that the honey was carried on deck, and for that reason denied liability therefor. Held,</p> <p>(1) That a policy on property in general terms, “laden or to be laden on board,” does not cover property on deck: but if the goods are named, and are such as are usually carried on deck, in the particular trade, for satisfactory reasons, this will be presumed to have been known to persons doing an insurance business in such particular trade, and to have been contemplated by the parties to the insurance contract.</p> <p>(3) Where, from the nature of the articles, they can properly be carried only on deck, it is a condition that they shall be so carried.</p> <p>(3) The statements of experienced persons as to how the business in question had been carried on for a series of years, were admissible in evidence as tending to show the usage in the trade.</p> <p>(4) In order to establish the liability of the underwriters, it was not necessary to show a custom among them to pay losses on goods carried on deck.</p>