Syndicate Ins. v. Bohn’s Empirical Analysis
65 F. 165 · 1894
Citation profile
26 federal appellate · 7 district · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 59 later decisions — most recently July 2018 · most notably Aetna Ins Co Kennedy Bogash Springfield Fire Marine Ins Co v. Same Liverpool & London & Globe Ins Co Limited (1937), Commerce Bank v. West Bend Mutual Insurance Company (2015)
26 federal appellate · 7 district · 17 state decisions — followed in 13 states
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 Van Allen v. The Assessors · Hastings v. . Westchester Fire Ins. Co. · Plimpton v. . Bigelow · Columbian Insurance Co. of Alexandria v. Lawrence · Weed v. London & Lancashire Fire 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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Our conclusion is that the effect of the union mortgage clause, when attached to a policy of insurance running to the mortgagor, is to make a new and separate contract between the mortgagee and the insurance company, and to effect a separate insurance of the interest of the mortgagee dependent for its validity solely upon the course of action of the insurance company and the mortgagee, and unaffected by any act or neglect of the mortgagor, of which the mortgagee is ignorant, whether such act or neglect was done or committed prior or subsequent to the issue of the mortgagee clause.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“•‘Now all tlie elements of such a contract appear In this new form. Taken together with the rest of the policy, the company insure first Thomas Cnllarn (mortgagor) for any loss which may come to him by reason of the destruction of the property described. This contract is subject to certain conditions appropriate to the relation of owner to the insurer. So long as this relation exists and these conditions are performed, the contract with Oullam is in force. Tf loss occurs while it is in force, it is paid, by direction of the mortgage clause, to Smith to the amount of his mortgage, and the balance, if any, to Oullam; the amount paid to Smith extinguishes his mortgage debt fuliy or pro tanto. All this would have taken place under the old form of clause, and, when the conditions are as supposed, the new parts of the clause have no application. When Cullam parts with or loses his interest, fails to pay premiums, or violates the conditions of the policy, the new provisions become effectual. These deal with the interest of the mortgagee. ‘This insurance m to the interest of Hie mortgagee only therein shall not be invalidated by any act or neglect of the mortgagor or owner,’ etc., is the language which meets the new condition of affairs; and the closing paragraph conclusively shows that the subsisting agreement which springs into life when the contract with the owner dies is the familiar one of insurance of a mortgagee’s interest — an indemnity for loss of the security — in which the”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“"We all know that 20 years ago a contract between a mortgagee and an insurance company, like that before us, was novel and rare. At that time the customary method of indemnifying the mortgagee against loss by fire was to indorse upon the policy the words, `Loss, if any, payable to ____, mortgagee, as his interest may appear,' or words of similar import. To-day such an indorsement is rare, and a contract similar to the mortgage clause before us is in general use. Why this change? The reason is not far to seek. The old indorsement made the mortgagee a simple appointee of the mortgagor, and put his indemnity at the risk of every act or neglect of the mortgagor that would avoid the original policy in his hands. Baldwin v. [Phoenix] Insurance Co., 60 N.H. 164 ; Martin v. [Franklin Fire] Insurance Co., 38 N.J.Law, 140 ; [State] Insurance Co. v. Maackens, Id. [38 N.J.L.] 564. Indemnity so precarious, so liable to be destroyed by the ignorance, carelessness, or fraud of the mortgagors, was not satisfactory to the mortgagees; and they proceeded to make contracts with the insurance companies similar to that before us, for the purpose of securing indemnity to their interests that should not be affected by any act or negligence of the mortgagors."”
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.