The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-21

There has been a great deal of dis
cussion, as matter IF course, concern
ing the liability of insurance companies
in view of the frightful disaster that
has fallen upon San Francisco This
has taken wide range among business
men, as to the insurance on buildings
as well as to the matter of marine in
surance. For it is not known yet how
much damage may have been done to
the vessels at the wharves or in the
stream in San Francisco bay, nor TO
their cargoes.
well known insurance man in town
said yesterday that, basing his calcula
tions upon the published tables of the
underwriters, which showed payments
of premiums in San Francisco amount
ing practically to three millions of dol
lars in 1905, it was probable that the
total of insurance carried in the city,
fire insurance, was in the neighborhood
of three hundred millions. 1t was con-
sidered by the gentleman who gave this
information that one per cent. would be
a fair average rate of insurance, IN
view of the high rates charged i'll GER
tain districts of the city, where the
houses were of particularly inflammable
character, or where their contents were.
1t will be assumed for the purposes of
approximately correct.
Taking fire insurance first, the poll
cies of San Francisco, probably ninety
or ninety-fve per cent. of them, were
written according to the New York
Standard form. This form contains the
following provision, but has no earth
quake clause:
elf building or any part thereof
fall, except as the result of fire, all in
surance on such building, or its con-
tents, shall Immediately cease.
The earthquake clause in insurance
policies, written or stamped in red ink
across the face of those issued in Homo
lulu and familiar to every policy holder
here, was inserted after the great Mar
Unique disaster. The order to insert
the volcano clause was given by the in
surance companies to the Board of Fire
Underwriters of the Territory of Ha
wall at the beginning of 1908. On the
9th of March of that year, all the insur-
ance agents of this city had to sign an
agreement binding themselves to insert
the volcano clause in all fire insurance
policies issued by them.
rrbapa DotbinU Of hat kind ia
New York Standard form proper, but
the New York form contains this provi-
SION
''This company shall not be liable
for loss caused directly or Indirectly
by invasion, insurrection, riot, civil war
or connection, or military or usurped
power, or by order of any civil author
ity, or by theft, or by the neglect of
the insured to use all reasonable means
to save and preserve the property at
and after fire, or when the property is
endangered by fire in neighboring
premises
The burden of proof is always upon
the insurance company, but it may
perhaps be assumed that there would be
some fire liability in San Francisco, but
at the same time, as fire insurance
company insures only a building and
not heaps of ruins thrown down by con-
vulsion, it would be incumbent upon
the companies to establish that the
buildings were thrown down before
they were burned For any buildings
blown up by the military authorities
with dynamite to check the spread of
confa grafton, of course, there would be
liability.
AS to the question of liability, the
r = ~
s'Yale Lectures. - that one on
s'Theory of Fire Insurance, delivered
by Richard NJ BisseIl, puts the case
very accurately:
'.When a building falls as the result
of weakened foundations, or is over
thrown by wind storms, or some other
cause. the fire insurance covering it in
stantly ceases for the reason that such
building a once loses its value and !
becomes a heap of debris. Fires usu !
ally start in such cases from some over
thrown lamp or stove. but the fire burns !
only the debris of building already |
destroyed-not the building itself
And. presumably, by the same lac of
reasoning, the insurance on the con- |
tents of the destroyed building would |
cease likewise. Because the contents /
insured would no longer be contained |
in building.
AS to marine insurance, it is not true I
that it would cease upon any vessel, or +
its cargo, as soon as the ship had
reached the port or the wharves in San
Francisco The clauses in the marine |
policies covering this contingency are /
of the most sweeping character. The |
cargo clause in these policies, as 1T is
written, follows:
beginning the adventure upon the |
said property or interest from and i'm
mediately following the loading there /
of, on board said vessel at as aforesaid I
(meaning the point of departure) and |
so shall continue and endure until said |
property or interest shall be safely /
landed as aforesaid. And 1t shall be I
lawful for the said vessel IN her Voy- !
age to proceed and sail to, touch and /
A l L q