SUPREME COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 3944, 15 October 1875, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

CIVIL Thursday, October 14. (Before hi* Mr Justice Williams and a special jury.) ALLEGED FRAUDULENT REPRESENTATIONS. Freeman ▼. The Standard Insurance Company. —-Claim of L 2,000 UU a tiro insurance policy. This cas« was continued. In cross- xamination Mr Flexmtn said :—Mr Weidner canvassed me for insurances I will •wear that fie canvassed me foi moreinsuran es than marine insurance on wool. I have seen ftlr Weidner on the works going over the buildings—what time it was before the fire I don't ••now. At the time I spoke to Mr Keid I did not see him make any memorandum of the proposal I made him. Mr Keid told me’ if he got the other companies to go in with him and take a’portion of it, he might go in, and he would let me know as to whether he could accept the insurance. 1 do not know as a fact that on the very day Mr Keid took this insurance he re-insured the whole of it in the Transatlantic Company. I heard after the lire "hat he had re-insured it in that Company, but I do not kiu»w that he re-insured it in that Company on the day in which he took it. As to signing blank policies, I have often done su lor the New (Zealand Company, and have always found it all right. 1 did not mention the amount to be filled in to Mr Weidner or Mr Kilgour. They know perfectly well what I had been paying Mr Eliott so that 1 did not leave the amount to them* Had the words “not otherwise insured” boo. written in when I was there I should nave seen it and stopped it at once To the beet of my belief I signed the interim

policy In the Standard Insttmca Company’s office; I must have signed it there, I slgne < before the filling up was completed, being in a hurry to get n way, L will not swear it was npt done in my office ; to tho best of my belief it was done at the Standard Office. It L no; conect that the proposal and receipt were brought to my office at one and the same time that I signed the pr 'po-a : , and that the recti t handed to me. I will swear f said to Wei trier and Ki’gour, “ I hj ive 1 1 000 in the Norwich, and you cn ascertain what I Ua.v-p.in the New Zealand.” I told them also that thamount in the Aew Zealand of the policy they were taking over was l 2,000, and that they could obtain other particulars at that coni-' t any’a office The reason I asked would it be nece sary to give written notice about the Norwich policy was because I thought it wss right to do so j and the answer from Wei-lner or Kigour was to the effect: “Ob, wo will find out all about that.” The poPcy was taken out on the 4th June, and the premises were bn ned down on .the 3rd July. Imho mean time, I had inquired several rimes fen the policy. I did not mind whether I go, policies from the New Zealand, with which I _ chiefly did my business, I was content with receipts from them ; but I liked to get policies from the other companies. I gave the value of the buildings, and did not wait to have all the particulars tilled in, thinking the filling in was a mere formal matter. The premises were not heavily raoitgaged ; there was no mortgage over them ; there was a lien on them, and yet I said in my declaration before the J.P. that no other person had an interest in them. After finding the words “not otherwise insur-d” were inserted in thepolic* I did not go to Mr Keidand ask him for an explanation—l went to my solicitor. I looked on Mr Eeid’s letter merely as a “ try on,” to-get out of p lying it. I did not go to hi ,as I thought if I went to him 1 might be got into signing some papers by mistake, or into some conversation, so I took the letter to my solicitor. The building cost me between L7,00u and LB,OOO. I have kept no calculations of tho cost, hut I have some of the large accounts. I reduced n v second claim to L 5.000 on the valuation of Mr launders.

Friday, October 15.

Mr Flexman was re-called. The Foreman : Can you produce books showing the amoun 1 expended upon those buildings in the Kaikorai Valley ? Witness : I have no books, but can produce accounts. Iho I oreman : Your books do no 1 , show i£. Witness: I have kept no books for the work done out tnere. Iho I oreman : If you have not got them you cannot produce them. It is the custom of men if they are erecting'extensive building to keep a building account. Mr Barton : It is not customary for people to get into Courts of Justice unless they do something loosely. George Grant, an insurance agent of thirty years’ experience and now in choige of the Norwich Co.’s agency in Dunedin, deposed that i plaintiff effected an insurance with the Norwich Company. Plaintiff informed him ot his insurance with the Standard befor • the fire ami | about two months after the policy with the , Norwich was accepted. He gave no notice in writing, none being icquired. In January 1873, witness inspected the premises at Kaikorai, and put down L 3,000 as their minimum insurance value. Mr Barton ; Is ic not a common practice, to your knowledge, that when an insurance been effected pr viously in an office, and is about to be withdrawn from that office, and ' proposed to be eiven th another office to sign . a proposal in bta; k, and then have it filled ui by taking a copy from the proposal in the other insurance office. Mr t'aggitt having objected, His Honor decided that the practice of other offices had nothing to do with this caß*. I' i counsel got the Standard Company’s agent into the box and asked him it would be admissible. Mr Barton intended to put Mr Held there. He asked his Honor to take a note of the qnes tiou, as he intended to put it to witness after witness. . r Barton :Is it not a common practice with insurance officers to receive applications for insurances signed in blank ? Mr Haggitt objected, and the question was not allowed. By Mr Haggitt: Witness now remembered that it wou d have been much closer to five months than two after taking the policy in 'he Norwich that Flexman told him that he had changed the L 2,000 from the New Zealand to the Standard Company. George William Fliotfc, local acrent for the New Zealand Insurance Company, deposed that Mr 11-xmnn insured with his company since the year 1868 He had insurance on the building; and in May last witness gave up a risk of L2 000, having a risk of L 4 000 on the stock at the same time. The 16,000 was divided will other offices. In consequence of very heavy losses sustained by the fire at Messrs Guthrie aud Lamach’s, witness’s company determined to discontinue these h*-avy At this time witness was aware tha* plaintiff was insured in the Nor« ich the buildings were certainly worth over L 3,000. He certainly considered L 3.000 an insurable value leaving a fair margin. Witness saw Mr Reid in his own office and sari to him “You have taken that risk of Flexmau’a,” and he said, ‘ Yes, but I oid not do it till I get word of it all” Witness said, “It is a very singular thing. What’s your motive!' is it to swell your premium column, or to get his wool business? You won’t get that.” Witness was a little anxious to find out who got it, hut did not know till after the fire. Mr Reid certainly knew of the Norwic i Insurance’s policy after the fire—(laughter)-but ho (witness) did not know that he did before; he imagined ho did, The New Zealand Office lost 1900 on the building. Witness was not greedy ; he shared the premiums with other companies, an I they shared the losses. Flexman did a very large busines* and witness had known him to have fi’oui LIO,OOO to L 12,000 on the stock and buildings during the wool season. James Gore, contractor, valued the buildings partly as.described to him by Mr Flexman, and partly by what he knew, at L 4,340 5. 3d. ibis did not include the value of the pits. The estimate waaif anything put rather low. , Edward .-anders, architect and surveyor, estimated the cost of rebuilding the premises at i .0,000. Evidence was then given by Thos. Mahone V of Gia-gow), Thomas Oaradus, aud John Biggar. J. B. Curran, tanner, fellmonger, and wooldeposed that he had some connectio with Klexman’s tannery about two years and ahalf ago. He should consider the buildings worth fully L 4.000, IVey were never put up for the money. This would not include the cost of the pits. By Mr Haggitt : Had been general manager for Mr Flexman, ana was rela ed to him. He had erected a tannery fur himself at Northeast Valley at a cost of LBOO, and mis could be put into one of Ftexmau’s sheds. He had-sent over a quantity of timber from Hobart Town tor Flexman. The memo, and articles of incorporation of the Standard Company we.e, after considerable argument, put in as evidence, and this closed the plaintiff’s case. Mr Hag.itt raised two nonsuit points, submitti g that a nonsuit should be entered, or that a verdict for defendant be given, Mr Barton replied. His Honor, after argument, reserved the points raised, and the case for the defence proceeded. r Mr Stout opened the case for the defence. [Left sitting.]