ON THE LAW OF INSURANCE IN ALL ITS BRANCHES, ESPECIALLY FIRE, LIFE, AN APPENDIX OF STATUTES AFFECTING THE INSUR- BY GEORGE RICHARDS, M.A. OF THE NEW YORK BAR, FORMERLY LECTURER ON INSURANCE Third Edition, Enlarged and Rewritten THE BANKS LAW PUBLISHING COMPANY 23 PARK PLACE, NEW YORK 1909 COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY GEORGE RICHARDS COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY GEORGE RICHARDS COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY GEORGE RICHARDS 95703 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION I This volume, like prior editions, is designed primarily for the class room, and is the result of an effort to unite and harmonize the distinctive advantages of the general treatise with those of the casebook. In the present revision, or rather rewriting of this book, the coarse print text and fine print footnotes combined cover a very wide range. Believing that the safe counsellor in insurance law is one who (1) is well grounded in general principles and (2) is imbued with the spirit of many modern decisions, the writer has endeavored to treat this difficult subject with a large measure of thoroughness; but the coarse print text, to which, if necessary, study may be limited, is concise. To the legal proposition in the text there has usually been added explanation in the text, and, where deemed desirable, copious illustration from the reports. Some of these illustrative cases are briefly given, but in numerous instances and especially in dealing with abstruse doctrines and with important clauses of modern policies the case system is followed to this extent that, instead of cursorily describing the cases cited, the writer has extracted the facts. from the original reports with all the detail considered desirable, and so far as relevant to the point in hand, and has given the exact holding of the court in juxtaposition with the precise statement of facts in concrete form. The opinions of the courts occasionally are given in the footnotes and often are reflected in the general explanations of the text. This compact but accurate method of presenting the whole law of an important case, while quite consistent, if time allows, with the use of a supplementary case volume, is for certain purposes thought to be the most effective. The ruling and principle involved are thus most quickly apprehended, most firmly impressed upon the memory, and from time to time most easily reviewed. The student having before him the exact premises and the exact conclusion may profitably be left in certain instances to construct the argument for himself and perhaps may be encouraged to subsequently compare his own course of reasoning with the well iii |