Ætna Insurance v. Mount

Citations

• 90 Miss. 642
• 44 So. 162

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance. Fire policy. Fireproof safe clause. Evidence.</p> <p>A merchant, having a policy of fire insurance on his merchandise conditioned on his keeping books showing the status of his business and requiring him to deposit them in a fireproof safe when the store was not open for business, failed to comply with the policy when he changed his system of bookkeeping, used new books, which brought forward only the footings of the old ones, and did not keep the old books in a fireproof safe, whereby they were destroyed in the fire which burned up the merchandise.</p> <p>2. Same. Waiver. Failure to return unearned premium. ■'</p> <p>An insurer, in a policy containing the usual iron safe clause and stipulating that if the policy should become void the unearned portion of the premium should be returned, does not waive a breach of the iron safe clause by failing, after knowledge of the loss, to return or offer to return the unearned portion of the premium; no demand having been made, nor any offer to surrender the policy.</p> <p>3. Same. Pleading. Tender.</p> <p>Where in a suit on a fire insurance policy a breach of the fireproof safe clause is a defense, the defendant may, the policy providing for return of the unearned part of the premium when it becomes void, plead the breach and tender the unearned portion of the premium with the plea.</p> <p>4. Same. Several policies. Tender good to some.</p> <p>Where an insurer denied liability on several fire policies, and tendered the unearned premium as to all, and liability was established as to some of them, the tender was good as to that policy on which it was not liable.</p>