Peril

The risk, hazard or contingency insured against by a policy of insurance.

— Perils of the lakes. As applied to navigation of the Great Lakes, this term has the same meaning as "perils of the sea." See infra.

— Perils of the sea. In maritime and insurance law. Nafural accidents peculiar in the sea, which do not happen by the intervention of man, nor are to be prevented by human prudence. 3 Kent, Comm. 216. Perils of the sea are from
(1) storms and waves;
(2) rocks, shoals, and rapids ;
(3) other obstacles, though of human origin;
(4) changes of climate;
(5) the confinement necessary at sea;
(6) animals peculiar to the sea;
(7) nil other dangers peculiar to the sen. Civ. Code Cal. § 2199. Ail losses caused by the action of wind and water acting on the property insured, under extraordinary circumstances, either directly or mediately, without the intervention of other independent active external causes, are losses by "perils of the sea or other perils and dangers," within the meaning of the usual clause in a policy of marine insurance. Baily, Perils of Sea, 6. In an enlarged sense, nil losses which occur from maritime adventure may be snid to arise from the perils of the sea; but underwriters are not bound to this extent. They insure against losses from extraordinary occurrences only; such as stress of weather, winds and waves, lighthing, tempests, eta These are understood to be meant by the phrase "the perils of the sea," in a marine policy, and not those ordinary perils which every vessel must encounter. Hazard v. New England Mar. Ins. Co.. 8 Pet. 557, 8 In Ed. 1048.