Adjustment

tn maritime law; the adjustment of a Joss is the settling and ascertaining the amount of the indemnity which the insured, after all proper allowances and deductions have been made, is entitled to receive, and the proportion of this, which each underwriter is_liable to pay, under the policy.

Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 14, p.

617; or it isa written admission of the amounts of the loss as settled between the parties to a policy of insurance.

3 Stark. Ev. 1167, 8.

In adjusting a loss, the first thing. to be considered is, how the quantity of damages for which the underwriters are liable, shall be ascertained. When a loss is a total loss, and the insured decides to abandon, he must give notice of this to the underwriters in a reasonable time, otherwise he will waive his right to abandon, and must be content to claim only for a partial loss.

Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 13, s. 2; 15 East, 559; 1 T. R. 608; 9 East, 283; 13 East, 304; 6 Taunt. 383.

When the loss is admitted to be total, and the policy is a valued one, the insured is entitled to receive the whole sum insured, subject to such deductions as may have been agreed by the policy to be made in case of loss. The quantity of damages being known, the next point to be settled is by what rule this shall be appreciated. The price of a thing does not always afford a true criterion to ascertain its true value. It may have been bought very dear or very cheap. The circumstance of time and place cause a continual variation in the price of things. For this reason, in cases of general average, the things saved contribute not according to prime cost, but according to the price for which they may be sold at the time of settling the averp- 621; Laws of Wisbny, art.

20; Laws of Oleron, art. 8; this Dict. tit.

Price. Andsee 4 Dall. 430; 1 Caines’s R. 80; 2 8S. & R. 2293 2 S. & R. 257, 258.: An adjustment being endorsed on the policy, and signed by the underwriters, with the promise to pay in a given time, is prima facie evidence against them, and amounts to an admission of all the facts necessary to be proved by the insured to entitle him to recover in an action on the policy. It is like a note of hand, and being proved the insured has no occasion to go into proof of any other circumstances.

Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 14, s. 3, p. 632; 3 Stark. Ev. 1167, 8; Park, ch. 4; Wesk. Ins. 8; Beaw. Lex Mer. 310; Com. Dig. Merchant, E 9; Abbott on Shipp. 346 to 348.