135 Mo. App. 247 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1909
While plaintiff held a policy of insurance in the defendant company, a fire consumed part of the insured property; a stock of drugs and other merchandise insured for one thousand dollars and some pool tables for two hundred dollars. This action was instituted to recover the damages. Several defenses were interposed; bnt we are concerned with only one of them, i. e., that plaintiff did not, before suing, take steps to have the amount of the loss ascertained by an appraisal. The policy contained, among other clauses, one in the nsual form regarding an appraisement, and providing that, in the event of disagreement in regard to the amount of loss, the same should be as
Another contention is that as plaintiff and the adjuster agreed regarding the value of the portion of the stock not burned, and as the remainder of the stock was destroyed, there Avas no need for an appraisal because appraisers could not state separately the sound value5 and the damage in conformity to the clause of the policy providing for an appraisal. This is a strained view of the meaning of the policy. The main purpose of the appraisal clause is to have the amount of loss ascertained by disinterested persons in the event of disagreement between the parties, so as to keep down litigation. In connection with an estimate of the loss, the appraisers are expected to state separately the value of the undamaged property and the amount of damage done to what is injured. In the present instance the appraisers could state the value of the sound property as agreed upon by the parties, and it would be their duty, also, to estimate the value of what was burnt. We Avould go far toward annulling the clause in question, were we to hold an appraisement was dispensed Avith in the event of a partial destruction of personal
There was ample evidence to prove plaintiff offered to have the loss appraised and a charge to that effect, such as the one contained in the latter part of the condemned instruction, omitting the ürst part, would have been good; though, as given, the instruction was quite misleading.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.