[orally.) This case is before the court upon a demurrer to the petition. The demurrer presents the question whether a stockholder in a private corporation has such an interest in the corporate property as will authorize him to take a policy of insurance for the protection of his interest; in other words, whether he has an insurable interest in the corporate property. The cases in which the question as to what is an insurable interest has been discussed are numerous, and I do not propose to cite or comment upon them here. It is sufficient to say that the tendency of the modem adjudications on the subject is in the direction of holding an insurance company responsible in every case where the insured has any such interest in the subject-matter of the insurance as would subject him to pecuniary damage or loss in the event of its destruction. It is not necessary that the party who takes out the policy should have any title to the property insured; it is sufficient if he has such an interest in it as that by its destruction he would suffer pecuniary loss. There have been a great many attempts to define what is and what is not an insurable interest, and a great many cases, as I have said, in which that question has been discussed; but I think that what I have stated is perhaps the result of the great weight of the authority upon the subject; at all events, it is, in our opinion, the correct definition of an insurable interest,
It only remains, then, to determine whether a stockholder in a corporation may have such an interest as I have indicated. We are very clearly of the opinion that he may. It is true that the title tc the property is in the corporation; that the beneficial interest is in the stockholders of the corporation. The stock of a corporation represents its property, and is evidence of the right of the stockholder to receive the profits and increase of the corporate property. It is a very plain proposition, in our judgment, that the destruction of the corporate property may entail pecuniary loss upon the stockholder, and therefore that he has a right to insure his interest as such stockholder. In this case the property was a steam-boat, and the insured was the holder of a portion of the stock, which entitled him
With regard to the other matters set forth in the petition we have not considered them, because counsel did not press them. It must, of course, appear that the insured had an interest in the property at the time of the loss. If that has not been averred, it will be necessary to amend the petition in that respect. The demurrer to the petition is overruled.
Reported by'Benj. E. Rex, Esq., of the St. Louis bar.