Pennsburg Manufacturing Co. v. Pennsylvania Fire Insurance

Citations

• 16 Pa. Super. 91
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 23

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Fire insurance — Delivery of policy — Possession of policy.</p> <p>No particular form is required to effect a delivery of a deed or other writing. It may be by acts merely, by words merely, or by both combined, but in all eases an intention that it shall be a delivery must exist.</p> <p>The fact that although a policy of fire insurance was executed by the company’s officers and countersigned by its local agent, it was not delivered to the insured by any one having authority from the company or its agent, but was obtained on the day after the insured premises were burned, by the insured, from the agent’s clerk in the agent’s absence, and without notice to either that a fire had occurred, rebuts the prima facies arising from plaintiff’s possession of the policy.</p> <p>The fact that a policy of fire insurance had not been manually delivered to the insured at the time of the loss will not bar recovery, if at that time it had become a binding contract.</p> <p>In an action upon a policy of fire insurance, it appeared that defendant’s local agent had in his possession policies signed by the president and secretary of the defendant which, as he effected insurance he had authority to fill, countersign and deliver. The local agent was also an insurance broker, and had a contract to keep the plaintiffs’ property insured for a certain amount at a certain rate per cent. A short time prior to the expiration of the policy in suit, it appeared that plaintiffs were informed that a clause as to the storage of certain lumber would be inserted in the policies. The plaintiffs objected to the clause, and this objection was communicated to the local agent. Thereupon the agent wrote to the plaintiffs that he would make out the policy according to their wishes. Nine days afterwards and on the day before the fire, plaintiff wrote to the agent that on account of the question having been raised about the lumber clause, they had placed their insurance in another company. With th