Benjamin Buck Thomas Hedrick v. The Chesapeake Insurance Company’s Empirical Analysis
26 U.S. 151 · 1828
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 1979
6 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Livingston Gilchrist v. The Maryland Insurance Company · Livingston and Gilchrist v. The Maryland Insurance Company · Vandenheuvel v. United Insurance · Murray v. United Insurance
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A knowledge of (lie shite of the world, of the allegiance of particular countries, of the risks and embarrassments affecting their commerce, of the course and incidents of the trade on which they insure, and Hie established Import of the terms used in their contract, must necessarily he imputed to underwriters. According to a distinguished English .jurist, Lord Mansfield, in Pelly v. Royal Exchange, etc., 1 Burr. 341, ‘the insurer, at the time of underwriting, has under his consideration the nature of the voyage, and the usual manner of conducting it. And what is usually done by such a ship, with such a cargo, on such a voyage, is understood to be referred to by every policy.’ Hence, when a neutral, carrying on a trade from a belligerent to a neutral country, asks for insurance ‘for whom it may concern,’ it is an awakening circumstance. No underwriter can he ignorant of the practice of neutrals to cover belligerent property under neutral names, or of the precautions ordinarily resorted to that the cover may escape detection. The cloak must be thrown over the whole transaction, and in no part is it more necessary than in the correspondence by other vessels, so often overhauled by an enemy, for the very purpose of detecting covers on other cargoes. Letters, thus intercepted, have often been the groundwork of condemnation In admiralty courts; and underwriters, to whom the extension of trade is always beneficial. must and do connive at the practice in silence. They ask no questi”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““[T]he insurer, at the time of underwriting, has under his consideration the nature of the voyage, and the usual manner of conducting it. And what is usually done by such a ship, with such a cargo, in such a voyage, is understood to be referred to by every policy.” 26 U.S. (1 Pet.) at 160 , 7 L.Ed. 90 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“That the term interest,. as' used in application to the right to insure, does not necessarily imply property in the subject of insurance.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.