Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-08-28
Unreasonable Conditions.

Many people us they sit down to read mn
insurance policy they have Just purchased on
their life and property, have been surprised
ut the exceeding smnrtness and ingenuity of
tho author of that document IN Inventing
conditions, restrictions aud provisos by
which the company shall he exempt from
paying II loss that should occur, although it
was one Of tho very things against which
the insured desired protection. Undoubtcd
ly \ majority of business men, if they were
set down To study II modern fire policy, and
alterw;rd To undergo AN examination rs to
what was the nature and details of tho con-
tract and risk insured again st, would be in
y profound muddlc, aud could not tell any
thing about it, The reading Of the policy is
n riddle, and leaves the insured in the ut
most confusion ~ to what kind of contract
hn has made. A mass of rubbish is put into
every policy that can have no kind of refer
encc to the subject matter of any contract
the company desire to make, while tho ma
| terlal stipulations rs to the contract are
crowded into the smallest type at the bottom
of the instrument, put on its back, or refer
red to in some blind way, that is past find
ing out 10y any one less astutu than PhiladGl-
phia lawyers are rcputed to he. learned
judge has recently held that there was
ground for the premium payer to argue that
the printed part OF common stock fire
policy was evidence competent to be sub
mittcd to Il jury, of u fraudulent plot TO swim
die him.
1t is probable that tins cultivated astute-
ness IN drawing forms for policies has beGn
employed moro recently in the manufacture
of telegraph blanks upon which companies
require their customers to write their mes
saEus. Everyone who has had occasion to
send II message by telegraph has noticed
that the sheet of paper upon which hU wrote
his dispatch had long chapter OF very fine
print ut tho top, to read which would take
more time than persons using n telegraph
have to fool away in that way. The blank,
usually however, contains an order plainly
printed above wlrlt the sender must write,
to "send the following message, subject to
the above terms, which are agreed to. ~ or
words to that effect. Tho sender of night
message written on red blank m Maine II
short tmc ago, after ascertaIning that his
message was never received. and that he
had suffered thousands Of dollars by reason
of the neglect of the employees of the
telegraph company, called upon that
corporation to pay those damages, whom he
was asked to read the fine print on the blank
upon which he wrote his message, and
found one clause of it to declare that 1.-THE
company should not be liable Tor mistakes
oil delays in the transmission or delivery, or
nOn-delivery of any message, beyond the
amount received by the company for send
ing the same,n and the blank was so ar
ranged that the signature to the message
made this condition II written contract. The
Supreme Court OF Maine, however, follow
ing the rule of com mon sense MS well rs adj
judged cases in other statos, held the condi-
ton to be unreasonable and void, and held
the company to payment of the actual
damages We believe that every attempt
of this Kind by common carriers to exoner-
ate themselves from the neglect or wrong
doing of their employees, by means of these
printed conditions that their customers do
not understand will be- held void. The hon
est rule in Nil these cases Is to hold the CON
pnnies 10 such liability rs the customer
had right to understand they assumed
irrespective of any printed condition not
specially called TO his attention and express
ly assented to. Tho same rule should be
applied TO insurance policies and other con-
tracts. There are two sides to these con-
tracts, and II man should not be required u
possess uncommon powers or to read long
documents to do such simple business ~
sending telegram. -Ratland Herald.