Wakely v. Sun Insurance Office of London

Citations

• 246 Pa. 268
• 92 A. 136
• 3 A.L.R. 128
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 507

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Fire insurance — Proof of loss — Defective proofs— Waiver.</p> <p>1. Where proofs of loss are- delivered to an insurance company within the time stipulated in the policy, in good faith as a compliance with the provisions of the policy, it is the duty of the company to give immediate notice to the assured of its objections to the proofs, if any, pointing out the defects, and if the company neglects to do so, its silence will be held as a waiver of such defects in the proofs.</p> <p>Affidavit of defense — Sufficiency of affidavit — Suit on insurance policy — Concealment of value — Proof of loss — Refusal to produce boolcs — Notice of loss — Execution of affidavit.</p> <p>2. If an affidavit of defense is made by an agent of a defendant corporation, it should ¿ver why it is not made by an officer of the corporation, and the agent should show that he has special knowledge of the facts if the affidavit is made from his personal knowledge and not from information and belief. If the party making the affidavit does not have personal knowledge of the facts, the established form is for the affiant to aver that he is informed, believes and expects to be able to prove them.</p> <p>3. In an action on a fire insurance policy covering a building and its contents, an affidavit of defense is insufficient which avers (1) that the plaintiff concealed and misrepresented a material fact concerning the value of the building, but alleges no specific facts disclosing concealment and misrepresentation; (2) that the plaintiff had not furnished satisfactory proofs of loss, but fails to assert that the proofs did not meet the requirements of the policy, or to show wherein they were unsatisfactory, or to deny the averment in the statement that notice was given in complianee with the terms of the policy, and where the facts admitted ghow a prompt furnishing of the proofs and failure to object to them until the filing of the affidavit of defense; (3) that the plaintiff had refused a