126 Iowa 52 | Iowa | 1904
'Under date of August 9, 1897, the defendant insurance company issued to the plaintiff a policy indemnifying her against loss or damage by fire on her frame dwelling house in the sum of $850, and on household furniture in the sum of $500. The principal, office of the defendant has at all times been in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, and the insured^ property was located in the adjacent town of Valley Junction. The policy was issued for a term of six years, and the premium thereon was made payable in yearly installments or assessments. On May 12, 1902, the insured property was destroyed by fire. All the matured assessments or installments of the premium had been duly paid, and it is conceded that plaintiff has furnished to the defendant due proofs of her loss, and that such loss upon the building amounts to $700, and upon the personal property to $500. The defendant is therefore admittedly liable to the plaintiff upon the policy in suit in the sum of $1,200, unless it is relieved from such obligation by reason of matters pleaded in its answer. These defenses will be severally noticed in the further progress of this opinion.
It is hereby agreed and is by the assured expressly warranted that the insured is the sole and unconditional owner of the property described in this policy; that there is no lien or incumbrance upon said property; * * * that no change or alteration shall be made in the title, interest of the assured * * * either by sale, agreement to sell or contract of sale, legal process or otherwise, * * * and that any breach or failure of any of these warranties, or any violation of any of the terms or conditions of this policy, or failure to comply with the requirements hereof, shall render this policy void, provided that if it be otherwise stated in writing in the application, or if written notice of any facts inconsistent with these warranties, or any of them be given to the Secretary at the Company’s office in Des Moines, Iowa, and endorsed upon this policy in writing, and such warranty or warranties be thus expressly modified, then the assured shall be bound by these warranties, only as thus modified.
This defense is not specially urged in argument, and is evidently without merit. The mere accumulation of interest upon a mortgage, of which the company was advised when it entered into the contract, will not work a forfeiture. To hold otherwise is to say that an insurance company may insure mortgaged property, collect the premium, and at the end of twenty-four hoiirs repudiate its contract because the lien has been increased by another day’s interest. The language of the policy is not fairly capable of the interpretation which the answer seeks to place upon it.
IV. The plaintiff, in reply, pleaded a waiver of the alleged forfeiture, and an election by the company to continue the contract in force. Upon the rulings of .the trial court in admitting and refusing testimony in reference _to the issue thus tendered, errors are assigned, and to these alleged errors arguments of counsel are principally directed. Having found that none of the several defenses set up by
The judgment of the district court was right, affirmed. and it is