148 Minn. 17 | Minn. | 1921
The court treated the action as one for damages for. breach of a contract to insure. The complaint is vague, but this construction seems to us a permissible one. The case was presented to the court on that theory. Defendant could hardly have been misled.
When objection to the sufficiency of the complaint is made for the first time on the trial, it should not prevail, if the complaint can be sustained by any reasonable intendment. Smith v. Dennett, 15 Minn. 59 (81). This is especially true when the objection is general and the specific objection calling attention to the defect relied on, is made for the first time in this court. Cochrane v. Quackenbush, 29 Minn. 376, 13 N. W. 154, McArdle v. McArdle, 12 Minn. 53 (98); Kubesh v. Hanson, 93 Minn. 259, 101 N. W. 73. We are of the opinion that the trial court did not err in overruling the objection to the complaint.
She is corroborated by the fact that the agent without further negotiation renewed both the other policies, and in the $1,000 policy stipulated that the insurable value of the building was $1,500, and by the fact that her husband did call and pay the premiums, claiming to pay a sufficient amount to cover the premium on this policy. The Farmers State Bank of Biehville, of which the agent was cashier, held all policies both old and new as^,collateral security to a loan, so plaintiff was not warned by the failure to deliver this policy. The agent denied that he agreed to renew the $500 policy, but said that on the contrary it was understood that this policy was not to be renewed. The. jury found for plaintiff and we must therefore accept plaintiff’s version of the facts as true. The transaction as detailed by plaintiff makes out a good contract, supported by sufficient consideration, to insure the property for the same amount and the same length of time provided in the old policy, and commencing on termination of the old policy. Failure to renew as agreed was a breach of the contract, for which an action may be maintained. Wiebeler v. Milwaukee Mechanics’ Mut. Ins. Co. 30 Minn. 464, 16 N. W. 363; Ames-Brooks Co. v. Aetna Ins. Co. 83 Minn. 346, 86 N. W. 344; 1 Cooley, Briefs on Insurance, p. 362, et seq. Taylor v. Phoenix Insurance Co. of Hartford, 47 Wis. 365, 2 N. W. 559, 3 N. W. 584, cited by appellant as opposed to this doctrine, is not in point. That ease was similar in its facts to the ease at bar, but it was an action, not for breach
Judgment affirmed.