ACTION AGAINST AN INSURANCE COMPANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9488, 18 April 1894, Page 5

ACTION AGAINST AN INSURANCE COMPANY.

EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES. A PAWNBROKER AND HIS PICTURES. [B? TBUCdHAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION,! Wellington, Tuesday. A bather peculiar case came before the Chief Justice and a special jury of twelve to-day. Mr. G. W. Smart, pawnbroker, sued the Phoenix Assurance Company for £285, the value of five pictures insured in the defendant's office alleged to be by suoh artists as Murdlo, Gainsborough, and others. Shortly after insuring them a fire took place in the plaintiffs premises, and the pictures were burned. When the plaintiff was examined, it came out that he had smuggled the pictures into the country by taking two of them out of their frames and Eutting them into furniture. He had ought 33 pictures, including the five, and one other which was not burned, but was insured for £40, in London for £300. He also admitted that the artists' names were fictitious. Several witnesses were called, who deposed that in their opinion the pictures were valuable, one of them placing the figures as high as £860 for six of them. After a couple of hours'consideration, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed, and His Honor entered up judgment accordingly, with costs.