Williamsburg City Fire Insurance v. Cary

Citations

• 83 Ill. 453

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance—consent to removal of goods. It is not indispensable to a recovery for a loss of goods insured, after their removal to a different place, that consent should be first obtained for the removal; a subsequent ratification of the act, with a full knowledge of all the facts, is equivalent to a precedent consent.</p> <p>2. When the local agent of an insurance company is informed that goods insured have been removed, long before any loss occurs, and the company does not elect to cancel the policy and give the assured an opportunity of again insuring, it will be liable for the loss.</p> <p>3. It would be inequitable to permit an insurance company to maintain that its policy was not binding upon it, and still retain the balance of the unearned premium when it had positive knowledge of that which it insists effected the forfeiture.</p> <p>4. Same—estoppel to insist upon that which has teen waived. A policy of insurance does not become absolutely void on a breach of the implied warranty as to the location of the properly embraced in it, as the company may waive any restriction made for its benefit; and when such waiver distinctly appears, the insurer will be estopped from insisting upon that which is inconsistent with what he has said and done, and which affects the rights of others.</p> <p>5. SAMEh-afe/iscis in preliminary proof waived by denial of liability. When an insurance company refuses to pay a loss, placing its refusal upon its non-liability in any event, it can not insist, in defense of an action, that the preliminary proof was insufficient.</p> <p>6. Same—waiver of limitation clause. Although a policy of insurance may contain a clause prohibiting a suit for a certain time after loss, yet, if the company positively refuses to pay under any circumstances, claiming that it is not liable at any time or in any event, the assured may bring suit at once, as the refusal will render the limitation clause nugatory.</p> <p>7. Error—excluding testimony that coul