106 Ala. 519 | Ala. | 1894
— We think the evidence in the record before us presents this case : Blair was the agent of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company at Gadsden, with power to accept propositions for insurance in said company, to receive premiums, bo make contracts of insurance and to issue policies without referring such applications to the company itself, though perhaps policies issued by him were subject to a right of cancellation in the company. King proposed to Blair to insure a certain house in the Hartford Co. for one year from September 12th, 1891, for six hundred dollars at a premium of three and one-quarter per cent. This application was made on September 11th, 1891, in writing on a form of the company furnished King by Blair. Upon receipt of it, Blair said that, because King’s application showed that there was a lien on the house (and lot) for a balance of purchase money, he could not issue a policy without first having the company’s consent, and he advised King that he had forwarded the application to the company, with a letter in which he informed the company that he would wait ‘ ‘to hear from them before
The question thus presented is as to whether a contract of insurance or to insure wás consummated between the company and King by the action of the former on September 19th., evidenced by its letter to Blair. Counsel for appellant do not at all question the well established propositions that a contract of this sort may rest in parol, that its existence and efficacy do not depend upon the issuance of that usual muniment of such contracts called a policy of insurance, but that to such ends, “it is sufficient,” . as said by Judge Bradley, “if one party proposes to be insured, and the other party agrees to insure, and the subject, the period, the amount and the rate of the insurance is ascertained or understood, and the premium paid if demanded.” — Eames v. Home Ins. Co., 94 U. S. 621, 629. See also 1 Biddle on Insurance, §§ 140 et seq.-, Home Ins. Co. v. Adler, 71 Ala. 516.
But the contention of appellant is, that there was no mutual assent to any contract of insurance until the
We do not think the complaint open to the objections taken to it by the demurrer. The daces which are left blank in the complaint appeared from papers in the possession of the defendant, and this would excuse their omission from the complaint where, as here, the complaint otherwise sufficiently shows that the contract sued on covered the time of the loss, the averment being that the contract was made on some day in September, 1891, prior to September 21st, for a period of one year, and that the fire occurred on said 21st day of September, 1891.
The judgment of the city court is affirmed.