The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-01-17 00:00:00

>.r.+:

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tabOtber Bts**, lt, irleet-street; and if he were wattled
i.e could be sent tor. Whew they afterwards west to
Fleet.illreet, the fire was nearly estinguisited.
The Plaintiff's case being closed, Mr. SCAULItrt
addressed the Jery for the Defendant, obi/frying
upon the painf,.l but imperious duty cast upon
Aaverence••offices, to resist a claim when there was
reason to think that that e clafra was fo' wand in fried.
The policy of some foreign Siete* premed the eats.
tlishment of Institutions of the kind, on the Pippo.
• ait;ite that the tettiptstioll was often too great to be
resisted, and that crime` of the most atm:leas
nature wouldl he encooregell by those cootracto here
• deemed. perfectly harmless, or perhaps even a esefel
aisistsoce hetwfwn man and man. Be it as kegs's',
it was an ascertained fact, that in Great Britain,
*beer an many Assurance Companies @aided, iris
were more numerous than is any other put of
Europe. He enetended that, though at the- time Ike
policy was affected, Mr. Mist might have been worth
he proper ty insured. yet he had sehieqoettli, verged
in concerns filet bad been enpreapproes, and his ape..
aviation., had. nonsiderably reduced the sound Of
the goods on his winsises.` tie was in want of mosey;
and it aas moth more to his 'advantage lo obtain
30011. from the tasperenet.office, than'a
.cempare-
tively sisal sum film a purchaser of kis cioghortsa.—
or coarse at. Jury w. f. the GI .jii.dgfi 60111-0111
• beiwnee Of testimony ; but be shoe/111019 Ili.
who would show, es he was bastiected, that asoreill.
suspicion belonged to the case; and that the probabi-
lity was, that Mr. Mist himself was the ansu of the
conflagration; at least, that he was mainly instru-
mental; and that, without his lattlretwetttitlitY,
would not have happened, He this pat into the boa .
• Mr. James Lynd, who resides is Fleet-street, op-
posite the .Plantiff's premises, and observed this fire
before two o'clock on the 23d wf May. The witness,
and Messrs. Cook and Smith, first colored. by a lad-
der,and going into the great wire.resom os the third
floor, and near the door, they Nw .fire stooping
down, the witness was able to touch with a stick what
awes burning, sod it fell and appeared to be a boodle
of papers. He gave the alarm immediately, and
going down stairs to the room below, he. perceived
that the ceiling was on fire, but that was all. The
bundle of papers was about the size. of half a ream of
paper, and did lint appear to contain any combesti-
hies ; be could perceive fire no where else on the pie.
wises.

Mr. George Smith, of St. Bride's-passage, gave
nearly similar evidence relative to the first discovery
end appearance of the fire: he could ant penetrate
through the smoke so far as the last witness, but he
called out fire from the Gout window; he wept away
to secure his own property, which be thought in
danger. The bundle was paper, and probably had
' been heuristic for some time, es the wood work was
discoloured near the closet, and the top seemed as
much !•,,,ni as the bottom.
Mr. Thomas Jenks, who lives at the opposite cor-
ner of Salisbury-court, was called, bet added MD
thing material.
1% Ahem Fenton, a plumber, was at work at tire
top of Mr. Jenks's house, sod at shoot SO minutes
before two o'clock be saw smoke issue free the
. rot window above the room ocsepied.hy Mr. Mist;
the flame did not come through the *Wee, bet the
glass broke in consequence of the Met as the leer
Was burning.
James Coats, another workman vibe was with the
last witness, gave nearly the same Malkin.
James Lynd war recalled.-1141did sot see goy fit.
in Mr. Mist's room; bat there might have beep with-
out his observing it.
Mr. Cook accompanied Lynd aid &kith wises
they entered the house; he went down stairs toopen
the back door after he had got in at the window, and
returning he saw a great blase rising from one place
occasioned by the opening of the windows. The
witness was not more than three or leer agnates op
stairs. • The door of Mr. Mist's room was locked,
'and if there had been a fire in it be probably could
not have seen it.
Mr. lisetham was called to speak to some declara-
tions by the Plaintiff relative to the sum he was to
receive from Davenport for the lease, Wore., and
stock, eliich appeared to disagree with what had
been sworn by that witness. Mist bad stated that he
was to receive 30001.
Some of the witnesses were recalled, but they
added nothing material.
Mr. Justice BAYLEY, notwithstanding an expres-
sion on the part of the Jury that they were satisfied,
wished, in summing up, to say a few words upon the
amount of de:lunges, and upon the conduct of the Plain.
tiff. With respect to the last, his Lorthhip concurred,
that es it was the bounden duty of Insurarice-of-
ices, when circumstances of great suspicion existed,
to resist any claim, it was not less their duty to pay
readily the sum insured, where the transattion itself
casts no imputation upon the demeanour or charac-
ter of the party. As far as it was possible to judge,
his Lordship could not discover that any auspicion
attached to the case, either from the circumstances
attending the fire, or fronithe conduct pf the Plain-
tiff either before or after that adansity. It some-
times happened that goods or bosses WHIP sot nearly
of the value for which they wars inured k sometimes
a clandestine removal of goods wee established ; het
here none of those facts had bees proved, and therefore
there appeared no inch:cellist's*, or pt Wet se ads-
quote inducement, for the Plaintiff to pet his life in
jeopardy by committing the crime of *WWI. As to
the question of damages, itswined that the Is.
surance in the whole was WM: ; bet theegb that
sum was covered by the policy, the 'lvry were unit
called upon to give that assegai, provided they
thought the property not worth the sem: the 011ie
was not in any case bound to pay more thakike
party proved that he had lost. It was admitted, flrit
a certain deduction was to be essdareek the whole
amount claimed. The Iltehielte oat in the seiddk
of the day, when aid was, neeefest, surd when the dis-
covery of the crime, iflt Wilted, could be Moat
easily made ; and the Plaintiff, without any anneal.
west, left the premises only a short time before the
flames were discovered. Beside: this, there was sae.
appeatante of any contrivance with combustibles to
produce fetid's. and unexpected conflagration, and
i.e. Plaintiff bad afforded tbe Eagle Assurance Cotu-
parry all the means in his power of *seemlier!'
ether or not any freed had been committed.
Anauttori a few moments. and found a