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TMI Blog1924 (12) TMI 6X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... onstantions XII at 1/2 per cent, and war risk at 5 per cent., less 10 per cent.; (b) an acceptance of this rate by the plaintiffs; and (o) an arrangement that the plaintiffs should supply the defendant company with a statement of the approximate amount to be covered, Ultimately there was a declaration for an aggregate amount of 10,870, for which sum the defendants refused to issue a policy, whereon the plaintiffs insured elsewhere at higher premiums and claimed the excess as their damages in the action. There was no loss of the goods at all. 2. Pearson J., who tried the case, found the contract and breach proved and gave the plaintiffs decree, but the High Court, holding the contract to be insufficiently established, set that decree asi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at agreements of certain kinds shall not be valid at all, unless commemorated in writing with or without formalities. . . In India apparently it is not fatal to the plaintiffs' case that there was no contract in writing, Possibly the fact that the High Court's decision was already plainly adverse to the claim may be the explanation of the circumstance, that counsel did not there and then dispel a misapprehension in the learned judge's mind of such capital importance, but the result, at any rate, has been that the effect of this section was not considered until the case came before their lordships' Board. 5. The suggestion may be at once dismissed that it is too late now to raise the section as an answer to the claim. No ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act of 1899 (1903) I.L.R. 30 Cal. 665, distinguishing a contract for sea insurance and a policy of sea insurance, seem to have been directed to another point, and the case of Bhugwandass v. Netherlands India Sea and Fire Insurance Company of Batavia (1888) 14 App. Cas. 83 was before the Stamp Act. In their lordships' view the contract alleged by the plaintiffs was a contract for sea insurance and nothing else, and, not being expressed in a policy was unenforceable. 6. The appellants asked that, in the event of the respondents succeeding upon this ground, they should not be allowed any costs, since the suit had proceeded throughout on the questions of fact in the case. For such a course there is authority (Home Marine Insurance Compan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it-but it is with equal surprise and regret that their lordships notice the extension of this evil practice to mercantile transactions in Calcutta. The conversations in question took place in November and December, 1916, and the cause of action, if any, was complete before the end of the year; nevertheless, the suit was not begun till the December 8,1919; the written statement was not delivered till the middle of 1921, and the ease was only brought to trial on July 31, and August 1,1922. . This interval of five years and a half was not, however, allowed to dim the definiteness, with which the partners and employees in the plaintiffs' firm spoke to conversations in the ordinary course of business, relating to a matter, which had little ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s and the approximate amount in pounds sterling. The amount given was 16,000, but it is impossible to say that this is a specification of the amount or amounts insured. The plaintiffs produced a press copy of a letter of the same date, in which they purported to inform the defendants that they confirmed their war and marine declarations of that date, but neither Court below believed that this letter was genuine. When written declarations were subsequently made a few days later, the actual amounts were only 9,300 and l,E70. The quotation had meantime been withdrawn and the defendants refused to insure at the rate quoted on November 30, as they had since heard from London that current rates were now much higher, a point vital to the po ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the last degree improbable that the transaction alleged should have been completed without the issue of regular cover notes from the office, and the probability is that, the defendants having withdrawn from the negotiation in time, the plaintiffs' whole endeavour has been to hold them to a quotation which was out of date, and to make up for the absence of ordinary documents by an exaggerated account of quite unimportant inquiries. Their lordships think that the learned judges of the High Court were fully warranted in disbelieving the plaintiffs' case. They do not think it necessary to discuss the question whether the damages claimed could have been said to flow from a breach of the contract alleged, if it had been made and was e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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