West Coast Lumber Co. v. State Investment & Insurance

— Action upon a policy of insurance. Plaintiff had judgment, from which and from an order denying a motion for a new trial the defendant appeals.

On the eighteenth day of June, 1888, the State Investment' and Insurance Company, a corporation, the defendant herein, issued its policy of insurance against loss or damage by fire, to one E. B. Newkirk, to the amount of $1,200, upon a three-story frame store-building, situate in San Diego, California; “loss, if any, payable to West Coast Lumber Company, as their interest may appear.” The building insured was wholly destroyed by fire February 5, 1889.

The complaint contains two counts:—

The answer sets out a number of defenses to the action, among which may be enumerated:—

At the date of the policy of insurance E. B. Newkirk was the lessee of the insured property, under one E. V. Roberts, from whom he held a written lease. The plaintiff herein had furnished lumber to Newkirk for the construction of the building on the property; had on the twentieth day of March, 1888, filed its mechanic’s lien upon the property as security for the sum due and owing for such lumber, amounting to some;hing over $2,200; and had on the eleventh day of…