Miller v. Security Insurance Co.

This is an action to recover on a policy of fire insurance. Plaintiff had judgment and defendant appeals.

The action resulted from a fire in which several buildings, the property of respondent, were destroyed. This group of structures was located at Elizabeth Lake, not far from the highway known as the Ridge Route, in the county of Los Angeles. Harvey Eshelman, the fire warden in charge in the district, and Robert Reep, one of his men, testified that when they arrived on the scene there were two separate; or “non-communicable” fires burning in the group. A building known as the tavern and a garage adjacent to it were burning briskly, while inside a dance-hall, a structure somewhat removed from the other two, a blaze was evident. All the testimony in the record shows that the doors and windows of the dance-hall were closed at the time. Eshelman and Reep said the roof and outside of the dance-hall were not burning. Eshelman testified also that a part of the inside walls and floor of the latter building were wet from the sprinkling of some petroleum product which smelled like kerosene. The evidence shows also that some years before the fire at Elizabeth Lake respondent had been paid…