Fire Insurance — Parol Contract — Degree of Proof Required.— Though a parol contract of insurance against loss by fire may be made and is enforceable, yet as such contracts are rarely made, and are not made in the usual and ordinary course of business, the proof of such oral contract must be clear and convincing, to the effect the contract was actually entered into, that each party understood it in the same light, and in regard to the same subject matter.

Id.—Finding Against Evidence—Parol Contract not Shown—Renewal Slip—Absence of Covering Note—Mere Declaration by CLerk.—A finding that a parol contract for fire insurance was made is against the evidence where it merely shows that renewal slips, consisting of applications to renew policies about to expire, were obtained by a collector, without any request for or issuance of a covering note, and that such applications for renewal were delivered by the collector to a clerk in the office of the insurance company, who had no authority to contract insurance, with the statement, “Here are some renewals,” to which the clerk responded, “All right,” depositing the same in his desk without looking at them, thereby importing only that the renewals would be referred to the company for its action.

Id.—Essential Elements of Contract—Free and Mutual Consent. A contract is an agreement to do or not to do a particular thing, which requires a consent which is free and mutual, and communicated by each to the other. The consent is not mutual unless the parties agree upon the same thing in the same sense; and unless they do so agree, there is no contract.

Id.—Contract not Describing Property.—There could be no executed parol contract of insurance of plaintiff’s property when there was no allusion in the conversation to any property.

Id.—Evidence not Inconsistent with Conditions Precedent to Renewal.—It is held that there is no evidence inconsistent with the hypothesis that the agent was to make a certificate of renewal, and the plaintiff was to pay the premium as condition precedent to the renewal, or to show that the parties intended to contract out of the usual course of business.