Todd v. Quaker City Mutual Fire Insurance

Citations

• 9 Pa. Super. 371
• 1899 Pa. Super. LEXIS 38

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Authority of secretary to adjust loss — Question for jury.</p> <p>Declarations made by a representative of a fire insurance company that he had power to adjust and settle a loss and the fact that he was secretary, treasurer and director of the company are separately insufficient to establish his authority to settle and adjust the loss; but his relation to the company, coupled with the correspondence in the case and his declarations, may be fully sufficient to clothe him with apparent authority to bind the company, and the question is then one for the jury.</p> <p>Practice, G. P. — Rules of court — Defendant's bill of particulars — Amendment.</p> <p>Where the rules of court require a bill of particulars of the grounds of defense as well as those of the claim, the parties may amend saving the righ of the opposite party to plead surprise. Where, therefore, the court has refused an amendment.which would have made certain evidence admissible for defendant but afterward admits the evidence without amendment, such action is error. This error is not made harmless by treating the defendant’s bill of particulars as amended because the plaintiff was not given his chance to apply for a continuance.</p> <p>Practice, G. P. — Appeals—Disregard of rules considered error.</p> <p>Courts are generally permitted to construe their own rules; yet when the manner of treating the rule is not interpretation or construction but conducting a trial in plain disregard thereof, such action of the court below is reversible error.</p> <p>Insurance — Evidence to prove adjustment when admissible.</p> <p>In a suit resulting from a fire loss it was error to reject an offer of evidence, on behalf of plaintiff, to prove a settlement and adjustment of a loss by an authorized agent of defendant company and a promise for the company to pay the amount agreed upon; also to show that the adjustment and promise to pay superseded the original contract.</p> <p>Insurance — Compromise agreement — Wa