REPORT OF THE SGPERTVTEVDEJT.   li

was effected had on the nnargin the following memorandum in red ink : "Free from partial loss unless caused l)y stranding, sinking, burning. or collision with another vessel and amounting to ten per cent." On the voyage a part of the cargo was swept off the vessel during a storm, the value of which M. claimed under the policy.

Hrld, reversing the decision of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick (33 N.B. Rep. 109), Taschereau. J.. dissenting, that M. was entitled to recover ; that though by the law of insurance the loss would only have been partial, the insurers, by the policy, had agreed to treat it as a total loss ; and that the memorandum on the certificate did no alter the terms of the policy, the words " free from partial loss " referring not to a partial loss in the abstract, applicable to a policy in the ordinary form, but to such a loss according to the contract embodied in the policy.

Hybl, fur` er, that the policy, certificates and memorandum together constituted the contract and must he so construed as to avoid any repugnancy between their provisions, and any ambiguity construed against the insurers front whom all these instruments emanated.

Appeal allowed with costs.

(13th February, 1890. Supreme (hurt of Canada ; Mo',vat as. Boston Marine Insurance Co. Vid„ 19 Montreal Legal News. p. 111.2.)

('-. l a ship was insured for a voyage " at and from Sydney to St. John, N. B., there and thence," etc. She went to Sydney for orders, and without entering within the limits of the port as defined by statute for fiscal purposes, brought up at or near the mouth of the harbour, and having received her orders by signal attempted to put about for St. John, but missed stays and was wrecked. In an action un the policy evidence was given establishing that Sydney was well known as a port of call, that ships going there for orders never entered the harbour, and that the injured vessel was within the port according to a Royal Surveyors' chart furnished to navigators.

Hsld, affirming the decision of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick (33 N. B. Rep. 105) that the words "at and from Sydney " meant at and front the first arrival of the ship : that she was at Sydney within the terms of the policy : and that the policy had attached when she attempted to put about for St. John.

Appeal dismissed with costs.

(lath February, 13911. Supreme Court of Canada ; Troop r.,. St. Paul Fire and Marine Ins. C'o., Vid. 19 Montreal Legal News, p. 1111.)

FRAUDS ON INSURANCE COMPANIES.

An unusually large number of frauds and attempted and suspected frauds on insurance companies have claimed the attention of the courts in Canada within the last couple of years. The following are perhaps the most notorious :

(a.) The Hendershot' Case.

In this case, John A. l-{endershott and William D. Welter were indicted for the murder of William Hendershott, a nephew of the defendant Hendershott, the motive being to obtain the amounts of two insurance policies which had been effected on the life of the deceased by John A. Hendershott, and made payable to himself : one of these policies was for $5,000 in the Covenant Mutual, and the other for ;6,000 in the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association. The trial took place at St. Thomas in March, 1895, when both prisoners were found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged, which sentence was subsequently carried into effect. During the progress of the trial, counsel for the Crown tendered eviden, e of a previous attempt by the defendant Hendershott to insure another per) on for his own benefit. The evidence was rejected by the presiding judge, Chief Justice Meredith (26 Ontario Reports, 678.) After the trial and execution of the murderers, actions were brought by the father of the deceased against the insurance companies to recover the amount of the policies. Both actions were recently tried before Chief Justice Armour, at the London Assizes,