183 Ind. 355 | Ind. | 1915
— Appellee sued in its own name to recover from the appellant a judgment for a sum of money which appellee had paid to the trustees of a local lodge of a fraternal society to discharge its obligation under a fire insurance policy issued by it insuring the property of the lodge against loss by fire, the property insured, having, as alleged, been destroyed by fire through the instrumentality of fire from one of appellant’s locomotive engines. The trustees of the lodge were made parties defendant to answer as to its interest in the subject-matter of the action. In material substance the averments of the complaint showed that the appellee had on January 22,1910, insured the property of the lodge, a building and its furnishings, against loss by fire for a period of five years to the amount of $1,400; that on July 20, 1911, in the term of the policy of insurance, the property insured, which was located near the track of the appellant’s railroad, was totally destroyed by fire which was directly communicated to the building by sparks and coals of fire emitted from one of appellant’s locomotive engines in use by it on its railroad, whereby appellant became liable to the lodge in damages to an amount equal to the total amount of the insurance ; that the property destroyed was of a value greater than the amount of the insurance and that appellee as it was bound to do by its contract of insurance fully paid to the trustees of the lodge the sum of $1,400 in discharge of its obligation to it under the policy. By reason of these facts, it was averred, appellee became and was entitled to be subrogated to the rights of the trustees and the lodge against appellant to the amount of the sum paid by appellee on the policy of insurance and for this sum it asked judgment against appellant.
In Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Chappell, supra, it was contended that such an act as this, which by its terms is applicable to all railroads in the State, whether organized before the act took effect or after, using fire in their locomotive engines to generate power, must be held to violate the due process clause of the 14th amendment to the Federal Constitution, §21 of the Bill of Rights (Art. 1), of our State Constitution, which forbid the taking of property by law without compensation, and those provisions of our State and Federal Constitutions which forbid laws impairing the obligations of contracts (Constitution, Art. 1, §24; Federal Constitution, Art. 1, §10), when applied, to railroads such as appellant which was organized and in operation before the act became in force. This claim is urged with added earnestness in this case. The basis of the contention is that as the law of the State under which appellant’s railroad was built and put in operation (Subd. 8, §5795 Burns 1914, §4187 R. S. 1881), authorized it to use locomotives propelled by steam power generated by fire and as the law as declared
Passing the suggestion of appellee that appellant has waived these objections by a failure to incorporate them in the memorandum made a part of the demurrer, it may be said that prior to the act of 1911, supra, where insured property had been destroyed by fire'through the negligence of a railroad company it has béen held in this State in har
In some states some late statutory provisions have gone beyond that in the act of 1911, supra, which gives a railroad company an insurable interest in the property along its route under which it might take insurance by its own contract, and have expressly given the railroad company the benefit of insurance effected by the owner for himself. Iij the few states in which this has been done, the validity of
Now the first section of our code as amended in 1911 (Acts 1911 p. 415, §249 Burns 1914), provides: “There
It being a settled rule that an insurer against loss by fire who pays thereby becomes by subrogation the equitable assignee of any right of action that the owner may have against a third party for the loss to the amount paid, it follows that if the insurance paid is equal to the entire loss the insurer has the equitable title to the entire beneficial interest in the cause of action; and if the insurance is less than the entire loss the insurer has an equitable beneficial interest to the extent of its payment which it holds in common with the owner who retains the rest. And so it has been held that
Moreover it is made clear by answers returned to interrogatories submitted to the jury that the settlements made between the owner and the appellant was for the amount of the loss in excess of the insurance; that is, it was for the part of the cause of action which remained in the owner and
Numerous errors are asserted under the assignment that the court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial. These are based on the alleged insufficiency of the evidence, the giving of a number of instructions claimed to be erroneous and the refusal to give instructions requested by appellant. The evidence is not in the record. In so far as the questions raised by this assignment of error are available they have been determined by the conclusions reached on the other questions raised. Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 108 N. E. 525. As to insurer’s right to subrogation, see 44 Am. St. 731; 1 Ann. Cas. 885; 18 Ann. Cas. 710. As to sufficiency of general allegations of negligence, see 59 L. R. A. 234. Whether the insurer who has paid a loss can. maintain action against the party causing the loss, see 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 922. As to contributory negligence as defense in an action under statute making a railroad liable for setting fire, see Ann. Cas. 1914 D. 934. See, also, under (1, 2) 3 C. J. 785-788; 2 Cyc. 691; (3) 33 Cyc. 1354, 1355; (4) 8 Cyc. 1099; (5) 19 Cyc. 584, 897 ; 33 Cyc. 1350; (6) 19 Cyc. 894 ; 37 Cyc. 363; (7) 19 Cyc. 893, 583; (8) 19 Cyc..S97; 33 Cyc. 1350; (9) 31 Cyc. 321; (10) 19 Cyc. 975; (11) 31 Cyc. 320; (12) 19 Cyc. 894.