Volume 212 — Missouri Appeal Reports

<p>1. DRAINS AND DRAINAGE DISTRICTS: Drainage Laws: Code in Themselves. The drainage laws (article 9, chapter 28, Revised Statutes 1919) are a code of procedure in themselves and are to be so regarded and enforced.</p> <p>2. -: Levees: Reclamation Flans: Amendments: Amended Flans Approved by Court: Commissioners May Submit Another Plan Without Carrying Out Amended Plan. Under section 4636, Revised Statutes 1919, after an original plan of drainage has been amended as provided therein, and a decree of court obtained approving that plan, etc., it is within the power- of the commissioners to submit a second amended plan without carrying into effect the first amended plan for reclamation, which they deem in the exercise of their discretion to be inadequate and not feasible.</p>

<p>1. INSURANCE: The Time When Policy of Life Insurance was to go into Eifect Fixed the Date When the Insurance Ended. The time of taking effect of a life insurance policy controls as to its termination, and gives to insured, upon payment of annual premium, a full year’s insurance from time when contract of insurance was to go into effect.</p> <p>2. A RECEIPT BY INSURER’S AGENT TO APPLICANT FOR LIFE INSURANCE, HELD NOT TO BE IN AND OF ITSELF A PART OF INSURANCE CONTRACT UNTIL INSURED WAS NOTIFIED THAT APPLICATION WAS ACCEPTED AND APPROVED. Where an agent of a life insurance company delivered to an applicant for insurance, a receipt containing an agreement between the parties, that under certain contingencies, a contract of insurance would be made, the receipt never became a completed contract in and of itself where the only insurance contemplated in it was the insurance created by the application and policy and there was no notice to insured that the application was approved until the policy was delivered.</p> <p>3. -■: Construction: Where Contract of Insurance is Ambiguous, that Construction Which is Most Favorable to Insured Will be Adopted. Where a contract of insurance is ambiguous as to time it was to go into effect, that construction which is most favorable to insured will be adopted.</p> <p>4. -: A Contract of Insurance Solicited, Applied for and Made Complete by Delivery to Assured in Missouri, Held a Missouri Contract and Governed by the Laws Thereof. Where a contract of insurance was solicited, applied for and made complete by delivery to insured in Missouri, held a Missouri contract, and governed by the laws and rules of decision thereof.</p> <p>5. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: Due Process: Where Jurisdiction of Person and Subject-matter not Questioned,, Action of Court, However Erroneous, Held Due Process of Law Within Meaning of Constitution. Where the jurisdiction of the court over the person and the subject-matter is not questioned, its action however erroneous, is due process of law within the meaning of the Constitution.</p> <p>6. INSURANCE: Contract of Insurance Held not to .be Effective Until Date of Delivery of Policy to Insured. Where life insurance agent after soliciting insured delivered him a receipt containing an agreement that under certain contingencies an insurance contract would be entered into, held that the contract of insurance did not become effective until- the date of the delivery of the policy.</p>

<p>1. JUDICIAL NOTICE. This court will take judicial notice that Jasper County has more than forty thousand population. -</p> <p>2. ASSESSOR’S BOOKS: Contents. The five sections preceding section 12797, Revised Statutes 1919, referred to in said section, relate to the contents of the assessor’s books, both real and personal, securing and keeping of plats of land and land lists, keeping of the mortgage list by the recorder and the employment of an abstracter of title to abstract delinquent lands. The county court of Jasper county had authority to employ an attorney for the purpose of ferreting out unassessed property in the county and reporting to the officers so that it could be assessed and revenues derived therefrom.</p> <p>3. RULE FOR CONSTRUING- STATUTE. The first rule to be observed by the courts in the construction bf statutes, and the one to which all others are aids, is,' that the intent of the Legislature, when ascertainable from the language used, construed in the light of the end sought to be obtained, must control. If the intent of the Legislature is reasonably clear, then, all grammatical errors and errors in spelling and punctuation are disregarded or corrected. The meaning of words may be limited, restricted or expanded by construction of the courts when it becomes necessary in order to make the law harmonize with reason and properly express what in fact was intended by the lawmakers in enacting the law.</p> <p>4. PROVIDED, MEANING OF. The fact that the word “provided” is used to introduce a portion of the statute which follows, does not necessarily make such part of the statute a proviso, where it is clear that the Legislature did not intend to make it a proviso, and thereby givte it a restrictive meaning, and thereby violate another cardinal rule of statutory construction which is that, if possible, every part of the statute must be given some meaning, and in this case, although t|he word /‘provided” is used we do not regard what follows it as a proviso.</p>

— Hon. Charles L. Henson, Judge. (1) Alimony and attorney fees can be adjudged only as an incident to a decree for a divorce, and tben only in favor of tlie wife wben sbe is tbe prevailing party. Doyle v. Doyle, 26 Mo. 545, 549 ; Mclntire v. Mclntire, 80 Mo. 476, 472; Slaughter v. Slaughter, 106 Mo. App. 104. (2) The court after dismissing plaintiff’s petition, and entering a judgment against her for costs, had no jurisdiction, to award her alimony and expenses of. appeal.

Louis.— Hon. Frank Landwehr, Judge. (1) The keeping and use of prohibited articles, to-wit, naptha, or heavy naptha, on the premises before the fire, and both being conceded as more inflammable than kerosene, the policy was thereby rendered void. Kenefick v. Norwich Union Fire Ins. Soo., 203 Mo. 204, 103 S. W. 957; Penman v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 216 U. S. 311, affirming 151 Fed. 96; Westchester Fire Ins.