FIRE INSURANCE POLICIES. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7335, 19 August 1885, Page 4

FIRE INSURANCE POLICIES. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—lnsurers with foreign companies through their local offices, would do well to read carefully the reports of a case that was recently decided, and is now under appeal, brought by one Murchie, a storekeeper near Gisborne against the Victoria Insurance Co. The insurance seems to have been effected in much the same"way as most insurance business is effected here, viz., by givi ng the agent particulars of the risk and of the applicant's interest m it, paying the premium, and receiving in return the premium receipt, and the assurance that all was in order.

Loss occurs, the claim is sent iv aud resisted, and the party facetiously called iv the policy the insured" has to sue to recover the amount.

The company, however, is quite prepared tor this. Its stock of " reasons against paying " is carefully overhauled, and a judicious selection is sent to the learned one who is to conduct the company's case. At length the attack is made in open Court, and the company's batteries are uuhmbered to defend. The bold plea is shot °?t? n reply to the suit that the Supreme Court ot New Zealand has no jurisdiction, but that a pohcyholder, if he wishes to sue a foreign company on its policies for insurance in New Zealand, must follow it up to its head office and raise its action there.

rhus a firm insured with all the companies doing business in Dunedin must needs raise separate actions to recover loss in the Courts of New Zealand, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and in various centres throughout England, Scotland, and Germany. By the merest accident of the company's inspector happening to land in Gisborne in time to be subpoenaed for the plaintiff this defence was upset; but as such a misfortune need not always be anticipated, no-doubt the point is duly noted by the legal fraternity as one entirely new, and that might at any time come in useful. The case was lost to the gallant defenders, and Judge Gillies so expressed himself as to convey aii impression of want of appreciation of this new thing in insurance tactics. Possibly, however, some people may consider the learned judge" to.be wanting in the larger sympathies. Nothing daunted by this defeat, the reserves have been called to the front, and fresh batteries are now uncovered and in action before the Court of Appeal. The jurisdiction defence is here declared by the company's representative to have been quite a " mistake of the juniors," and, having proved worse thau unavailing, is virtuously abandoned, even with scorn, as unworthy of the noble cause in which it suffered. Its place is filled by this new defence. The company's seal being attached to tlie policy, bars out and renders null and void any and every understanding between the parties, however well understood and mutually acknowledged. I cannot tell what the result of this new defence may be, though there is no doubt it will be in strict accordance with the law of the land; but it is to be hoped that the company will succeed in its appeal.

Its ingenuity, and perseverance, and fertility of resource, aud agility in manoeuvre, all deserve success; and every business man in New Zealand has reason to admire the open-handed candour of a company that has thus bravely come forward in two courts of the Colony and clearly demonstrated what insurance with a foreign office through local representatives actually means.—l am, &c,

A Learner.

August 18.