488 . FEDERAL REPQETE.T. �undertaken, in the structure, use or occupation of the insured premises. For instance, if the assured neglected to lock hia doors at night, tho risk might be largely increased; but, though he had done this for a week together, it -n-ould not be Buch a change as is contemplated by this condition. The failure to repair this pump was a bit of negligence, great in degree, perliaps, and upon an important matter, but still a piece of negligence by the servants of the assured, or by them- selves, in the conduct of their business, and the care of their property, against which they are insured. �I have examined many decisions upon this subject, and bave not found one in which the point has been taken that a neglect of this sort was within the covenant. There are many in which a temporary use permitted things, from heed- lessness or good nature, increasing the risk and causing the loss, have been held not to be within it, but in none of them was the negligence so long continued as in this case. Dob- son V. Sothehij, M. & M. 86; Shaw v. Eobberds, 6 A. & E. 75 ; Gates V. Madison County Ins. Co. 5 N. Y. 469; Loud v. Citi- zens' Mut. Ins. Co. 2 Gray. 221. In one a house was vacant for several weeks, and the court held that, if there was no intentional abandonment of the occupation of the house, but the insured was using reasonable diligence to obtain a tenant, there was no forfaiture. Gamwell v. Mer chants' Ins. Co. 12 Cush. 167. That case differs from this, because here there was no evidence of reasonable diligence; but, upon general principles of the law of insurance, the ruling muat have been the same, without that element, so long as the assured had not purposely given up the use of his house. Diligence does not come into question in this connection; its presence >wili not save a forfeiture if the risk is changed, nor will it if it is not. �The condition avoiding the policy, if the premises "become unoccupied" without the consent of the company, must like- wise refer to something more than a temporary suspension of work in a mill. The works had been stopped for five days, and how soon it would have been renewed is uncertain. But I think they were not unoccupied, within the meaning of this ����
Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/495
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