United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions

The above letter was produced, and the appellant examined, who deponed that he had received no other advice as to the ship, and Lamb, the captain, and his wife were also examined as to the letter alleged to be sent to her, which turned out to be a mistake, as none such was sent.

Mar. 3, 1780.

June 20, 1781.

The Judge Admiral, after having allowed a proof, to shew that, prior to the date of the policy (26th Nov. 1778) the appellant knew of the ship having been taken as a prize, and this not having been proved, decerned against the insurers for payment of the sum insured. A suspension being brought of the Admiral's decree to the Court of Session, it came before the Lord Justice Clerk Ordinary, and his Lordship ordered informations with the view of reporting to the Court. The Lords, of this date, on considering these, “suspended the letters simpliciter.”

Against this interlocutor the present appeal was brought.

Pleaded by the Appellant.—It is quite true that the party insuring must communicate to the insurers every fact within his knowlege material to the risk, and material to guide the latter in fixing the premium at which they will insure; but it was not necessary for the appellant to communicate the contents of the captain's letter, because the facts in the letter received were matters of public notoriety, known to every insurance office in the country, and already known to the respondents, as is proved by the high premium they took. The only fact which the letter communicates is the date of her arrival at Gibraltar. It communicates no other intelligence of additional risk or danger other than that which, from the war with France, was well known to exist. And the allusion in the letter to merchants not sending their goods in English ships without convoy, was plainly intended to show how unlikely it was that the ship would get a freight at Malaga, than any danger from the enemy; but the captain was evidently hazarding his own opinion, not so much upon actual knowledge of the fact, as upon mere speculation as to the dangers, because he closes by stating that he would write to Mr. Ferry for information. But to hold that this letter does not simply refer to the French privateers, and to the dangers necessarily arising from the war in which France and Britain were then engaged, facts already known to the respondents, is to subvert the whole meaning of the letter, and the contract between the parties.

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