The Calcutta Law Journal Short Notes of Cases Articles and other Matters December 16th 1932

In the case of Castellain v. Preston (3) Lord Bowen said :— " What is it that is insured in a fire policy ? Not the bricks and materials used in building the house but the interest of the assured in the subject-matter of the insurance not the legal interest only but the beneficial interest." (i) (1884) 12 Q. B. D. (Marine) 564 (571). [...] This was to be verified by the minister churchwardens and householders in the district where the loss occurred who were to state that they knew and verily believed that the insurance should enure to the benefit of the executors and administrators of the insured.. [...] Law-suits on fire contracts became the order of the day until finally in the year 1872 Wilson J. in the case of Smith v. Commercial Union Insurance Conlany (2) in describing the practices of fire insurance companies of that day used the following words : " It would scarcely be right to pass over ' some notice of the wonderful structure : nol scope of the fourteenth condition (this condition wa [...] In this judgment the Privy Council said : " It is enough for the decision of the present case to say that in their view its (the Dominion Parliament's) authority to legislate for the regulation of trade and commerce does not comprehend the power to regulate by legislation the contract of a particular business or trade such as the business of fire insurance in a single province and therefore t [...] "(2) A policy may contain a partial payment of loss clause to the effect that the insurer in the event of loss shalt pay only an agreed proportion of any loss which may he sustained or the amount of the loss after deduction of a sum specified in the policy in either case not exceeding the amount of the isurance in which case there shall be printed or stamped on the face of the policy in consp