140 Pa. 437 | Pa. | 1891
Opinion,
The plaintiffs are merchants in the city of Philadelphia, with sales rooms at Eighth and Chestnut streets. They used a building at Eighth and Jayne streets for storage, and for packing and shipping goods to purchasers. The stock carried in the storage-house seems to have been about one hundred thousand dollars in value. The company defendant issued a general policy, concurrent with those of other insurance companies on this stock, for ten thousand dollars. It was dated in February, 1889, was for one year, and in the usual form. During the summer of 1889, the plaintiffs desired for some reason to transfer the stock and business of shipping from the building on Eighth and Jayne streets to another at the corner of Fifth and
The defence rests on the construction of the indorsement on the policy. The position is taken that it limits the operation of the policy, so far as the Jayne-street building is concerned, to the specific articles of merchandise that were on the premises when the indorsement was made, and to a reasonable time for their removal from that date. This position was sustained by the learned judge of the court below, who further held as matter of law that the defendant was not liable, because the goods destroyed had not been removed within a reasonable time. The ease depends, therefore, on the construction of the indorsement. Before the indorsement was made, the policy was a general one, covering a stock which was used in business, and which was constantly changing in the specific articles composing it by the processes of shipment and supply. The plaintiffs desired to transfer this part of their business to another place. The object of the indorsement was to give consent to such removal, and to permit it to he made without losing the protection of the policy. The risk would be increased by the division ■ of the stock during removal, and so an additional premium was charged and paid. When this consent was obtained and indorsed on the policy, it did not make it necessary for the plaintiffs to remove. They might avail themselves of the privilege they had purchased, or they might refrain from doing
It may be that itwas the duty of the insured, whenever they began to remove, to proceed with reasonable diligence until the work was done; but there is nothing to show when removal began in this case, or that there was any delay in its prosecution. When all the facts necessary to a judgment upon the question are before the court, we do not deny that reasonable time may be a question of law; but all the facts we find here are that the indorsement was made in July, and the fire took place in November. When the actual work of removal began does not appear. The reasonable time for completing it must, of course, be estimated from the time of beginning, and that, so far as the bill of exceptions advises us, may have been but a few days before the loss occurred. There were no facts before the court, at least there are none before us, upon which the court could determine this question as one of law. Peoples Ass’n v. Smith, 126 Pa. 317, is cited as sustaining the ruling of the court below, but we cannot see that it does so. In that ease the policy required “ immediate notice ” of an injury to be given. It was not given for several weeks, and this failure was relied on as a defence. We hold, affirming the court below, that whether the notice was a reasonable compliance with
The judgment is reversed, and judgment is now entered in favor of the plaintiffs on the verdict.