102 Neb. 464 | Neb. | 1918
Plaintiff alleged that he made an oral contract with the defendant for fire insurance on a building .in Central City; that the contract was made on the 8th day of May, 1914, and that the property was destroyed by fire on the 27th day of December, 1914. No premium had been paid and no policy delivered. The jury,found a verdict for the defendant, and the plaintiff has appealed, and in the brief discusses two assignments of error.
1. Plaintiff complains that the court erred in- striking' out the evidence that the insurance agent, with whom he claims to have made the oral contract, was indebted
2. The plaintiff also complains of the giving of instruction No. 10 by the court on its own motion, as follows: “While, as hereinbefore explained, it is competent for the insurance company to extend credit in
It is complained that this instruction “brings into the case the element of extension of credit.” The court had already, in behalf of the plaintiff, instructed the jury that “an insurance company may waive the cash payment of a premium and may extend the time for the payment of the same.” This is referred to in the instruction complained of. It is also- complained that the instruction assumes that “no effort to pay had'been made.” The plaintiff testified that at one time during the seven months he put a blank check in his pocket and went to the office of the agent for the purpose of paying the premium, but the plaintiff also testified that the agent “is out.of town most of the time,” and that the door of his office “was locked, as it usually is,” and that at other times he went to the agent’s office to collect rent, but did not testify that he, at those times, made any tender of payment. It he had tendered payment, and it had been refused, it might well be contended that an “effort to pay had been made;” Under the circumstances in this case, we cannot consider that it was probable that the verdict of the jury was affected by the assumption that the act off the plaintiff in going to the agent’s office, when he knew that the agent would probably be away,, was not an effort to pay. The plaintiff’s evidence as to the making of the alleged contract' is. emphatically contradicted by two cempetent witnesses, and his own allegations and proof, as we have already seen, are not - so definite as to the terms of the alleged contract as. to justify the conclusion that the jury has been misled in the matters complained of.
Affirmed.