Zeimer

This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment against him for four hundred dollars. It appears that the defendant was the owner and the plaintiff the lessee of a certain building; that the plaintiff made certain improvements to the building of the value of four hundred dollars; that to protect his interests in these improvements it was agreed that insurance on the building in the amount of four hundred dollars would be taken out in the name of the defendant, but for the benefit of the plaintiff; that this was done; that the building was burned and the loss incurred, but the insurance policy was not collected, and that prior to the commencement of the action all right to recover upon it had been lost by failure to present proofs of loss within the required time. The foregoing facts appear without dispute. The dispute is over the nature of the agreement with relation to the taking out of the insurance, the plaintiff claiming that the agreement was that the defendant should collect the insurance in case of loss, so that he is responsible for its not being collected, and the defendant claiming that the agreement was only that the plaintiff might take out the insurance in the…