INSURANCE, contracts. It is defined to be a contract of indemnity from
loss or damage arising upon an uncertain event. 1 Marsh. Ins. 104. It is more
fully defined to be a contract by which one of the parties, called the insurer,
binds himself to the other, called the insured, to pay him a sum of money, or
otherwise indemnify him in case of the happening of a fortuitous event, provided
for in a general or special manner in the contract, in consideration of a
premium which the latter pays, or binds himself to pay him. Pardess. part 3, t.
8, n. 588; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1174.
2. The instrument by which the contract is made is denominated a policy; the
events or causes to be insured against, risks or perils; and the thing insured,
the subject or insurable interest.
3. Marine insurance relates to property and risks at sea; insurance of
property on shore against fire, is called fire insurance; and the various
contracts in such cases, are fire policies. Insurance of the lives of
individuals are called insurances on lives. Vide Double Insurance;
Re-Insurance.
INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE. A contract by which the insurer, in
consequence of a certain premium received by him, either in a gross sum or by
annual *payments, undertakes to indemnify the insured against all loss or damage
which he may sustain to a certain amount, in his house or other buildings,
stock, goods, or merchandise, mentioned in the policy, by fire, during the time
agreed upon. 2 Marsh. Ins. B. 4, p. 784; 1 Stuart's L. C. R. 174; Park. Ins. c.
23, p., 441.
2. The risks and losses insured against, are "all losses or damage by fire,"
during the time of the policy, to the houses or things insured.
3. - 1. There must be an actual fire or ignition to entitle the insured to
recover; it is not sufficient that there has been a great and injurious increase
of heat, while nothing has taken fire, which ought not to be on fire. 4 Campb.
R. 360.
4. - 2. The loss must be within the policy, that is, within the time insured.
5 T. R. 695; 1 Bos. & P. 470; 6 East, R. 571.
5. - 3. The insurers are liable not only for loss by burning, but for all
damages and injuries, and reasonable charges attending the removal of articles
though never touched by the fire. 1 Bell's Com. 626, 7, 5th ed.
6. Generally there is an exception in the policy, as to fire occasioned "by
invasion, foreign enemy, or any military, or usurped power whatsoever," and in
some there is a further exception of riot, tumult, or civil commotion. For the
Construction of these provisoes, see the articles Civil Commotion and Usurped
Power.
INSURANCE, MARINE, contracts. Marine insurance is a contract whereby
one party, for a stipulated premium, undertakes to indemnify the other against
certain perils or sea risks, to which his ship, freight, or cargo, or some of
them may be exposed, during a certain voyage, or a fixed period of time. 3 Kent,
Com. 203; Boulay-Paty, Dr. Commercial, t. 10.
2. This contract is usually reduced to writing; the instrument is called a
policy of insurance. (q. v.)
3. All persons, whether natives, citizens, or aliens, may be insured, with
the exception of alien enemies.
4. The insurance may be of goods on a certain ship, or without naming any, as
upon goods on board any ship or ships. The subject insured must be an insurable
legal interest.
5. The contract requires the most perfect good faith; if the insured make
false representations to the insurer, in order to procure his insurance upon
better terms, it will avoid the contract, though the loss arose from a cause
unconnected with the misrepresentation, or the concealment happened through
mistake, neglect, or accident, without any fraudulent intention. Vide Kent, Com.
Lecture, 48; Marsh. Ins. c. 4; Pardessus, Dr. Com. part 4, t. 5, n. 756, et
seq.; Boulay-Paty, Dr. Com. t. 10.
INSURANCE ON LIVES, contracts. The insurance of a life is a contract
whereby the insurer, in consideration of a certain premium, either in a gross
sum or periodical payments, undertakes to pay the person for whose benefit the
insurance is made, a stipulated sum, or an annuity equivalent thereto, upon the
death of the person whose life is insured, whenever this shall happen, if the
insurance be for the whole life, or in case this shall happen within a certain
period if the insurance be for a limited time. 2 Marsh. Ins. 766; Park on
Insurance, 429.
2. The insured is required to make a representation or declaration, previous
to the policy being issued, of the age and state of health of the person whose
life is insured and the party making it is bound to the truth of it. Park, Ins.
650; Marsh. Ins. 771; 4 Taunt. R. 763.
3. In almost every life policy there are several exceptions, some of them
applicable to all cases, others to the case of insurance of one's life. The
exceptions are, 1. Death abroad, or at sea. 2. Entering into the naval or
military service without the previous consent of the insurers. 3. Death by
suicide. 4. Death by duelling. 5. Death by the hand of justice. The last three
are not understood to be excepted when the insurance is on another's life. 1
Bell's Com. 631, 5th ed. See 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 518.
INSURED, contracts. The person who procures an insurance on his
property.
2. It is the duty of the insured to pay the premium, and to represent fully
and fairly all the circumstances relating to the subject-matter of the
insurance, which may influence the determination of the underwriters in
undertaking the risk, or estimating the premium. A concealment of such facts
amounts to a fraud, which avoids the contract. 1 Marsh. Ins. 464; Park, Ins. h.
t.
INSURER, contracts. One who has obliged himself to insure the safety
of another's property, in consideration of a premium paid, or secured to be
paid, to hi.m. It is his duty to pay any loss which has arisen on the property
insured. Vide Marsh. Ins. Index,.h. t.; Park. Ins. Index, h. t. Phill. Ins. h.
t.; Wesk. Ins. h. t.; Pardess. Index, art. Assureur.
INSURGENT. One who is concerned in an insurrection. He differs from a
rebel in this, that rebel is always understood in a bad sense, or one who
unjustly opposes the constituted authorities; insurgent may be one who justly
opposes the tyranny of constituted authorities. The colonists who opposed the
tyranny of the English government were insurgents, not rebels.
INSURRECTION. A rebellion of citizens or subjects of a country against
its government.
2. The Constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 8. gives power to
congress " to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions."
3. By the act of Congress of the 28th of February, 1795, 1 Story's L. U. S.
389, it is provided: 1. That whenever the United States shall be invaded, or be
in imminent danger of invasion, from any foreign nation or Indian tribe, it
shall be lawful for the president of the United States to call forth such
number, of the militia of the state, or states, most convenient to the place of
danger, or scene of action, as he may judge necessary to repel such invasion,
and to issue his orders, for that purpose, to such officer or officers of the
militia as be shall think proper. And in case of an insurrection in any state,
against the government thereof, it shall be lawful for the president of the
United States, on application of the legislature of such state, or of the
executive, (when the legislature cannot be convened,) to call forth such number
of the militia of any other state or states, as may be applied for, as he may
judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection.
4. - 2 That, whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the
execution thereof obstructed, in any state, by combinations too powerful to be
suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers
vested in the marshals by this act, it shall be lawful for the president of the
United States to call forth the militia of such state, or of any other state or
states, as may be necessary to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws
to be duly executed; and the use of militia so to be called forth may be
continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the
commencement of the then next session of congress.
5. - 3. That whenever it may be necessary, in the judgment of the president,
to use the military force hereby directed to be called forth, the president
shall forthwith, by proclamation, command such insurgents to disperse, and
retire peaceably to their respective abodes, within a limited time.
INTAKERS, Eng. law. The time given to receivers of goods stolen in
Scotland, who take them to England. 9 H. V. c. 27.
INTEGER. Whole, untouched. Res integra means a question which is new
and undecided. 2 Kent, Com. 177.
INTENDED TO BE RECORDED. This phrase is frequently used in
conveyancing, in deeds which recite other deeds which have not been recorded. In
Pennsylvania, it has been construed to be a covenant, on the part of the
grantor, to procure the deed to be recorded in a reasonable time. 2 Rawle's Rep.
14.
INTENDANT. One who has the charge, management, or direction of some
office, department, or public business.
INTENDMENT OF LAW. The true meaning, the correct understanding, or
intention of the law; a presumption or inference made by the courts. Co. Litt.
78. 2. It is an intendment of law that every man is innocent until proved
guilty, vide Innocence; that every one will act for his own advantage, vide
Assent; Fin. Law, 10, Max. 54; that every officer acts in his office with
fidelity that the children of a married woman, born during the coverture, are
the children of the hushand, vide Bastardy; many things are intended after
verdict, in order to support a judgment, but intendment cannot supply the want
of certainty in a charge in an indictment for a crime. 5 Co. 1 21; vide Com.
Dig. Pleader, C 25, and S 31; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; 14 Vin. Ab. 449; 1 Halst.
132; 1 Harris. 133.
INTENTION. A design, resolve, or determination of the mind.
2. Intention is required in the commission of crimes and injuries, in making
contracts, and wills.
3. - 1. Every crime must have necessarily two constituent parts, namely, an
act forbidden by law, and an intention. The act is innocent or guilty just as
there was or was not an intention to commit a crime; for example, a man embarks
on board of a ship, at New York, for the purpose of going to New Orleans; if he
went with an intention to perform a lawfull act, he is perfectly innocent; but
if his intention was to levy war against the United States, he is guilty of an
overt act of treason. Cro. Car. 332; Fost. 202, 203; Hale, P. C. 116. The same
rule prevails in numerous civil cases; in actions founded on malicious injuries,
for instance, it is necessary to prove that the act was accompanied, by a
wrongful and malicious intention. 2 Stark. Ev. 739. 4. The intention is to be
proved, or it is inferred by the law. The existence of the intention is usually
matter of inference; and proof of external and visible acts and conduct serves
to indicate, more or less forcibly, the particular intention. But, in some
cases, the inference of intention necessarily arises from the facts. Exteriora
acta indicant interiora animi secreta. 8 Co. 146. It is a universal rule, that a
man shall be taken to intend that which he does, or which is the necessary and
immediate consequence of his act; 3 M. & S. 15; Hale, P. C. 229; in cases of
homicide, therefore, malice will generally be inferred by the law. Vide Malice'
and Jacob's Intr. to the Civ. Law, Reg. 70; Dig. 24, 18.
5. But a bare intention to commit a crime, without any overt act towards its
commission, although punishable in foro, conscientiae, is not a crime or offence
for which the party can be indicted; as, for example, an intention to pass
counterfeit bank notes, knowing them to be counterfeit. 1 Car. Law Rep. 517.
6. - 2. In order to make a contract, there must, be an intention to make it a
person non compos mentis, who has no contracting mind, cannot, therefore, enter
into any engagement which requires an intention; for to make a contract the law
requires a fair, and serious exercise of the reasoning faculty. Vide Gift;
Occupancy.
7. - 3. In wills and testaments, the intention of the testator must be
gathered from the whole instrument; 3 Ves. 105; and a codicil ought to be taken
as a part of the will; 4 Ves. 610; and when such intention is ascertained, it
must prevail, unless it be in opposition to some unbending rule of law. 6
Cruise's Dig. 295; Rand. on Perp. 121; Cro. Jac. 415. " It is written," says
Swinb. p. 10, " that the will or meaning of the testator is the queen or empress
of the testament; because the will doth rule the testament, enlarge and restrain
it, and in every respect moderate and direct the same, and is, indeed, the very
efficient cause. thereof. The will, therefore, and meaning of the testator
ought, before all things, to be sought for diligently, and, being found, ought
to be observed faithfully." 6 Pet. R. 68. Vide, generally, Bl. Com. Index, h.
t.; 2 Stark. Ev. h. t.; A 1. Pand. 95; Dane's Ab. Index h. t.; Rob. Fr. Conv.
30. As to intention in changing a residence, see article Inhabitant.
INTER. Between, among; as, inter vivos, between living persons; inter
alia, among others.
INTER ALIA. Among other things; as, "the said premises, which inter
alia, Titius granted to Caius."
INTER ALIOS. Between other parties, who are strangers to the
proceeding in question.
INTERCOMMONING, Eng. law. Where the commons of two manors lie
together, and the inhabitants, or those having a right of common of both, have
time out of mind depastured their cattle, without any distinction, this is
called intercommoning.
INTER CANEM ET LUPUM. Literally, between the dog and the wolf.
Metaphorically, the twilight; because then the dog seeks his rest, and the wolf
his prey. 3 Inst. 63.
INTER PARTES. This, in a technical sense, signifies an agreement
professing in the outset, and before any stipulations are introduced, to be made
between such and such persons as, for example, " This Indenture, made the _____
day of _____ 1848, between A B of the one part, and C D of the other." It is
true that every contract is in one sense inter partes, because to be valid there
must be two parties at least; but the technical sense of this expression is as
above mentioned. Addis. on Contr. 9.
2. This being a solemn declaration, the effect of such introduction. is to
make all the covenants, comprised in a deed to be covenants between the parties
and none others; so that should a stipulation be found in the body of a deed by
which "the said A B covenants with E F to pay him one hundred dollars," the
words "with E F" are inoperative, unless they have been used to denote for whose
benefit the stipulation may have been made, being in direct contradiction with
what was previously declared, and C D alone can sue for the non-payment; it
being a maxim that where two opposite intentions are expressed in a contract,
the first in order shall prevail. 8 Mod. 116; 1 Show. 58; 3 Lev. 138; Carth. 76;
Roll. R. 196; 7 M. & IV. 63; But this rule does not 'apply to simple
contracts inter partes. 2 D . & R. 277; 3 D. & R. 273 Addis. on Contr.
244, 256.
3. When there are more than two sides to a contract inter partes, for
example, a deed; as when it is made between A B, of the first part; C D, of the
second; and E F, of the third, there is no objection to one covenanting with
another in exclusion of the third. See 5 Co. 182; 8 Taunt. 245; 4 Ad. & Ell.
N. S. 207; Addis. on Contr. 267.
INTER SE INTER SESE. Among themselves. Story on Part 405.
INTER VIVOS. Between living persons; as, a gift inter vivos, which is
a gift made by one living person to another; see Gifts inter vivos. It is a rule
that a fee cannot pass by grant or transfer, inter vivos, without appropriate
words of inheritance. 2 Prest. on Est. 64.
INTERCOURSE. Communication; commerce; connexion by reciprocal dealings
between persons or nations, as by interchange of commodities, treaties,
contracts, or letters.
INTERCHANGEABLY. Formerly when deeds of land were made, where there
Were covenants to be performed on both sides, it was usual to make two deeds
exactly similar to each other, and to exchange them; in the attesting clause,
the words, In witness whereof the parties have hereunto interchangeably set
their hands," &c., were constantly inserted, and the practice has continued,
although the deed is, in most cases, signed by the grantor only. 7 Penn. St.
Rep. 320.
INTERDICT, civil Among the Romans it was an ordinance of the praetor,
which forbade or enjoined the parties in a suit to do something particularly
specified, until it should be decided definitely who had the right in relation
to it. Like an injunction, the interdict was merely personal in its effects and
it had also another similarity to it, by being temporary or perpetual. Dig. 43,
1, 1, 3, and 4. See Story, E Jur. 865; Halif. Civ. Law, ch. 6 Vicat, Vocab. h.
v.; Hein. Elem. Pand. Ps. 6, 285. Vide Injunction.
INTERDICT, OR INTERDICTION, eccles. law. An ecclesiastical censure, by
which divine services are prohibited either to particular persons or particular
places. These tyrannical edicts, issued by ecclesiastical powers, have never
been in force in the United States.
INTTERDICTED OF FIRE AND WATER. Formerly those persons who were
banished for some crime, were interdicted of fire and water; that is, by the
judgment order was given that no man should receive them into his house, but
should deny them fire and water, the two necessary elements of life.
INTERDICTION, civil law. A legal restraint upon a person incapable of
managing his estate, because of mental incapacity, from signing any deed or
doing any act to his own prejudice, without the consent of his curator or
interdictor.
2. Interdictions are of two kinds, voluntary or judicial. The first is
usually executed in the form of an obligation by which the obligor binds himself
to do no act which may affect his estate without the consent of certain friends
or other persons therein mentioned. The latter, or judicial interdiction, is
imposed by a sentence of a competent tribunal, which disqualifies the party on
account of imbecility, madness, or prodigality, and deprives the person
interdicted of the right to manage his affairs and receive the rents and profits
of his estate.
3. The Civil Code of Louisiana makes the following provisions on this
subject: Art. 382. No person above the age of majority, who is subject to an
habitual state of madness or insanity, shall be allowed to take charge of his
own person or to administer his estate, although such person shall, at times,
appear to have the possession of his reason.
4. - 383. Every relation has a right to petition for the interdiction of a
relation; and so has every hushand a right to petition for the interdiction of
his wife, and every wife of her hushand.
5.- 384. If the insane person has no relations and is not married, or if his
relations or consort do not act, the interdiction may be solicited by any
stranger, or pronounced ex officio by the judge, after having heard the counsel
of the person whose interdiction is prayed for, whom it shall be the, duty of
the judge to name, if one be not already named, by the party.
385. Every interdiction shall be pronounced by the judge of the parish of the
domicil or residence of the person to be interdicted.
386. The acts of madness, insanity or fury, must be proved to the
satisfaction of the judge, that he may be enabled to pronounce the interdiction,
and this proof may be established, as well by written as by parol evidence and
the judge may moreover interrogate or cause to be interrogated by any other
person commissioned by him for that purpose, the person whose interdiction is
petitioned for, or cause such person to be examined by pbysicians, or other
skilful persons, in order to obtain their report upon oath on the real situation
of him who is stated to be of unsound mind.
387. Pending the issue of the petition for interdiction the judge may, if he
deems it proper, appoint for the preservation of the movable, and for the
administration of the immovable estate of the defendant, an administrator pro
tempore.
388. Every judgment, by which an interdiction is renounced, shall be
provisionally executed, notwithstanding the appeal.
389. In case of appeal, the appellate court may, if they deem it necessary,
proceed to the hearing of new proofs, and question or cause to be questioned, as
above provided, the person whose interdiction is petitioned for, in order to
ascertain the state of his mind.
390. On every petition for interdiction, the cost shall be paid out of the
estate of the defendant, if he shall be interdicted, and by the petitioner, if
the interdiction prayed for shall not be pronounced.
391. Every sentence of interdiction shall be published three times, in at
least two of the newspapers printed in New Orleans, or made known by
advertisements at the door of the court-house of the parish of the domicil of
the person interdicted, both in the French and English languages; and this duty
is imposed upon him who shall be appointed curator of the person interdicted,
and shall be performed within a month after the date of the interdiction, under
the penalty of being answerable for all damages to such persons as may, through
ignorance, have contracted with the person interdicted.
392. No petition for interdiction, if the same shall have once been rejected,
shall be acted upon again, unless new facts, happening posterior to the
sentence, shall be alleged.
393. The interdiction takes place from the day of presenting the petition for
the same.
394. All acts done by the person interdicted, from the date of the filing the
petition for interdiction until the day when the same is pronounced, are
null.
395. No act anterior to the petition for the interdiction, shall be annulled
except where it shall be proved that the cause of such interdiction notoriously
existed at the time when the deeds, the validity of which is contested, were
made, or that the party who contracted with the lunatic or insane person, could
not have been deceived as to the situation of his mind. Notoriously, in this
article, meaus that the insanity was generally known by the persons who saw and
conversed with the party.
396. After the death of a person, the validity of acts done by him cannot be
contested for cause of insanity, unless his interdiction was pronounced or
petitioned for, previous to the death of such person, except in cases in which
mental alienation manifested itself within ten days previous to the decease, or
in which the proof of the want of reason results from the act itself which is
contested.
397. Within a month, to reckon from the date of the judgment of interdiction,
if there has been no appeal from the same, or if there has been an appeal, then
within a month from the confirmative sentence, it shall be the duty of the judge
of the palish of the doimcil or residence of the person interdicted, to appoint
a curator to his person and estate.
398. This appointment is made according to the same forms as the appointment
to the tutorship of minors. After the appointment of the curator to the person
interdicted, the duties of the administrator, pro tempore, if he shall not have
been appointed curator, are at an end and he shall give an account of his
administration to the curator.
399. The married woman, who is interdicted, is of course under the
curatorship of her hushand. Nevertheless, it is the duty of the hushand, in such
case, to cause to be appointed by the judge, a curator ad litem; who may appear
for the wife in every case when she may have an interest in opposition to the
interest of her hushand, or one of a nature to be pursued or defended jointly
with his.
400. The wife may be appointed curatrix to her hushand, if she has, in other
respects, the necessary qualifications. She is not bound to give security.
401. No one, except the hushand, with respect to his wife, or wife with
respect to her hushand, the relations in the ascending line with respect to the
relations in the descending line, and vice versa, the relations in the
descending line with respect to the relations in the ascending line, can be
compelled to act as curator to a person interdicted more than ten years, after
which time the curator may petition for his discharge.
402. The person interdicted is, in every respect, like the minor who has not
arrived at the age of puberty, both as it respects his person and estate; and
the rules respecting the guardianship of the minor, concerning the oath, the
inventory and the security, the mode of administering the sale of the estate,
the commission on the revenues, the excuses, the exclusion or deprivation of the
guardianship, mode of rendering the accounts, and the other obligations, apply
with respect to the person interdicted.
403. When any of the children of the person interdicted is to be married, the
dowry or advance of money to be drawn from his estate is to be regulated by the
judge, with the advice of a family meeting.
404. According to the symptons of the disease, under which the person
interdicted labors, and according to the amount of his estate, the judge may
order that the interdicted person he attended in his own house, or that he be
placed in a bettering-house, or indeed, if he be so deranged as to be dangerous,
he may order him to be confined in safe custody.
>405. The income of the person interdicted shall be employed in mitigating
his sufferings, and in accelerating his cure, under the penalty against the
curator of being removed in case of neglect.
406. He who petitions for the interdiction of any person, and fails in
obtaining such interdiction, may be prosecuted for and sentenced to pay damages,
if he shall have acted from motives of interest or passion.
407. Interdiction ends with the cause which gave rise to it. Nevertheless,
the person interdicted cannot resume the exercise of his rights, until after the
definite judgment by which a repeal of the interdiction is pronounced.
408. Interdiction can only be revoked by the same solemnities which were
observed in pronouncing it.
6. - 409. Not only lunatics and idiots are liable to be interdicted, but
likewise all persons who, owing to certain infirmities, are incapable of taking
care of their persons and administering their estates.
7. Such persons shall be placed under the care of a curator, who shall be
appointed and shall administer in conformity with the rules contained in the
present chapter.
8. - 410. The person interdicted cannot be taken out of the state without a
judicial order, given on the recommendation of a a family meeting, and on the
opinion delivered under oath of at least two physicians, that they believe the
departure necessary to the health of the person interdicted .
9. - 411. There shall be appointed by the judge a superintendent to the
person interdicted whose duty it shall be to inform the judge, at least once in
three months, of the state of the health of the person interdicted, and of the
manner in which he is treated.
10. To this end, the superintendent shall have free access to the person
interdicted, whenever he wishes to see him.
11. - 412. It is the duty of the judge to visit the person interdicted,
whenever, from the information he receives, he shall deem it expedient.
12. This visit shall be made at times when the curator is not present.
13. - 413. Interdiction is not allowed on account of profligacy or
prodigality. Vide Ray's Med. Jur. chap. 25; 1 Hagg. Eccl. Rep. 401; Committee;
Habitual Drunkard.
INTERESSE TERMINI, estates. An interest in the term. The demise of a
term in land does not vest any estate in the lessee, but gives him a mere right
of entry on the land, which right is called his interest in the term, or
interesse termini. Vide Co. Litt. 46; 2 Bl. Com. 144; 10 Vin. Ab. 348; Dane's
Ab. Index, h. t.; Watk. Prin. Com. 15.
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