A NEW FORM OF POLICY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5612, 25 March 1879, Page 3

A NEW FORM OF POLICY.

(From the Insurance Chronicle.) It will not | be. denied that many vexatious litigations between insurants and fire insur-ance-companies are attributable to the fact that the former do not comprehend all the conditions of "the. contracts which they enter into. ‘lt is quite safe to say that nine-tenths of the., entire number of fire insurance policyholders never read their policies. This is not due,so,much, to indifference on the, part of insurants, but rather to the multiplicity* conditions contained in policies and the diminutive size of the type in which these conditions are printed.. Men who desire to understand the object and meaning of the thousands of words printed on the front and back of their policies will remain in ignorance if they, have any .respect for their optics. Nor have agents sufficient time, oveu though they may have patent eyesight, to read those ponderous conditions to persons seeking insurance. ; The insurant is told by some agent or broker Hhatall that is required of him is to .pay ■ tbe necessary premium, and when that is done hie may, rest. assured that he is insured for the ;sum written on the face of the policy. And he : doea rest assured. He calmly reposes beneath ithe blanket sheet upon which are printed conditions, the violation of any one of which will vitiate his policy. Besides, he believes—we are japeaking of dwelling-house risks—that every article, whether of furniture or other description, contained in his house is covered by the policy. But this delusion is dispelled when the house and all its contents are destroyed by fire. He then rolls up his blanket sheet, and, repairing to the office of the company whose name it bears or its agent, presents his claim for payment. He then learns for the first time that his insurance does hot apply to or cover jewels, plate, watches, scientific instruments, ornaments, medals,, patterns, printed music, printed books, engravings, paintings, picture frames, sculpture, casts, models or curiosities, unless particularly specified, in the policy. None of these articles were specified in the policy, although some of such articles were in the r house at the time of the fire. The conditions of the policy must be carried out; if not, what use would there have been in making them ? Although his wife’s jewellery went through the fire—not however, to be purified, but to be lest for ever—he cannot recover one cent; on them. S The great- fault with the policy in common use is that its conditions are complicated, un- . necessarily elaborated details,and that the type used is almost illegible. That this fault can Be remedied is shown by the new form of policy for dwelling-houses, household furniture, and' farm' property' recently adopted by the Citizens’ Insurance Company, of New York. In the first place the smallest . type used in printing the' conditions in , the . new form referred to is the same size as that used in this article ; and, secondly, the conditions themselves are simple and free from all siirplus matter contained in ordinary policies. No insurant who holds one of these policies can offer any excuse for not reading and understanding its conditions. | We expect to see many of the companies adopt the new policy form inaugurated by the Citizens’, and venture to predict , that it will lead this or some other enterprising company to take up the task of amending the forms of. policies issued on all descriptions of property.