Shoemaker v. Line Lexington Mutual Fire Insurance

Citations

• 16 Pa. Super. 18
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 5

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Mutual fire insurance — By-la ws— Overinsurance — Power of general agent.</p> <p>A by-law of a mutual fire insurance company which provides that the company shall not be liable for a greater amount on any one building and the contents thereof beyond a sum mentioned, is intended to limit the power of the board of managers, and to govern them in taking insurance and issuing policies for a greater amount than therein stated. It was not intended that the company should use the by-laws as a defense where it had with full knowledge taken a risk for an amount in excess of the limit, and accepted the premiums on the larger sum for many years.</p> <p>Insurance — Mutual fire insurance companies — By-laws—Waiver.</p> <p>Where a by-law of a mutual fire insurance company provides that the managers may change any by-law so long as their action is not repugnant to the charter of the company, the managers may in a particular case waive the provision of another by-law which directs that the company shall not be liable for a greater amount on any one building and the contents thereof then a sum mentioned.</p> <p>A by-law of a mutual fire insurance company provided that the company should not be liable for a greater amount on any one building and the contents thereof than $6,000. Another by-law gave the managers the power to change any by-law so long as their action was not repugnant to the charter. Plaintiff owned jjersonal property which he had insured in the mutual company. He removed this property to another township and placed it in a mill which was insured by its owner. The insurance on the mill and its contents amounted in the aggregate to more than $6,000. When the goods were removed, plaintiff submitted his policy to one of the managers, who was also the general agent of the defendant company, who had knowledge of the facts, and returned the policy to him, with an indorsement, showing knowledge on the part of the company of the removal of the property attested