US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

INSURANCE CO. V. TRANSPORTATION CO., 79 U. S. 194 (1870)

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U.S. Supreme Court

Insurance Co. v. Transportation Co., 79 U.S. 12 Wall. 194 194 (1870)

Insurance Co. v. Transportation Company

79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 194

Syllabus

1. When two causes of loss concur, one at the risk of the assured and the other insured against, or one insured against by A. and the other by B., if the damage caused by each peril can be discriminated, it must be borne proportionately.

2. But if the damage caused by each peril cannot be distinguished from that caused by the other, the party responsible for the predominating, efficient cause, or that which set in operation the other incidentally to it, is liable for the loss.

3. An insurance upon a steamer against fire, "except fire happening by means of any invasion, insurrection, riot, or civil commotion, or of any military or usurped power," is an insurance against fire caused by collisions.

4. Underwriters against fire are responsible for a loss occasioned by the sinking of a vessel insured when caused by fire (though the fire itself be the result of a collision not insured against), if the effect of the collision without the fire would have been only to cause the vessel to settle to her upper deck, and that be a case in which she might have been saved.

The Howard Fire Insurance Company insured the steamer Norwich, owned by the Norwich & New York Transportation Company, for $5,000 against fire. The policy covered the steamer, her hull, boilers, machinery, tackle, furniture, apparel, &c., whether stationary or movable, whether the boat should be running or not running, and insured against all such loss or damage, not exceeding the sum insured, as should happen to the property by fire, other than fire happening by means of any invasion, insurrection, riot, or civil commotion, or of any military or usurped power.

While on one of her regular trips from Norwich to New York, on Long Island Sound, the steamer collided with a schooner, the latter striking her on her port side, and cutting into her hull below the waterline, in consequence of which she immediately and rapidly began to fill with water. Within ten or fifteen minutes after the collision, the water reached the floor of the furnace, and the steam thereby generated blew out the fire, which communicated with the woodwork chanrobles.com-red

Page 79 U. S. 195

of the boat. Her upper works and her combustible freight were soon enveloped in flames, and they continued to burn half or three-quarters of an hour, when she gradually sunk in twenty fathoms of water, reeling over. The steamer was so constructed that her main deck was completely housed in from stem to stern, up to her promenade, or hurricane deck above. Her freight was stowed on the main deck, and her cabin and staterooms were on the hurricane deck. From the effects of the collision alone she would not have sunk below her promenade deck, but would have remained there suspended in the water, and would have been towed to a place of safety, when she, her engines, tackle, and furniture, could have been repaired and restored to their condition prior to the collision for the sum of $15,000, the expense of towage included. The sinking of the steamer below her promenade deck was the result of the action of the fire in burning off her light upper works and housing, thus liberating her freight, allowing much of it to drift away, whereby her floating capacity was greatly reduced, so that she sunk to the bottom, and all the damage which she suffered beyond the $15,000 above named as chargeable to the collision (amounting to $7,300), including the cost of raising the boat, was the natural and necessary result of the fire, and of the fire only.

The Transportation Company having set up a claim for indemnity against the Insurance Company, for a loss by fire within the policy, and the company declining to pay, suit was brought in the court below against it, and on the facts as already stated, and specially found as facts by the circuit court, judgment was given for the plaintiff. The Insurance Company brought the case here to reverse the judgment. chanrobles.com-red

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