Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/74

 60 FEDERAL BBPOBTEB, �Noble de Orriclc, for plaintiffs. �0. B. Sansum, for defendant. �McCeaby, g. J., (charging jury.) These cases being ail of like nature, and relating to the same questions, have been by the order of the court Consolidated for the purpose of the trial, and are now to be submitted to you for your verdict upon the facts and in accordance with the law as given to you by the court. The plaintiff in an action of this character is, in the absence of any admission by defendant, bound to establish by a preponderance of evidence — First, the execution of the con- tract or policy of insurance sued on; second, the destruction, total or partial, of the property insured; third, the amoiint of the loss, or, in other words, the value of the insured property destroyed-; foarth, that such notice and preliminary proof of loss as the policy requires has been given. �In these cases the defendants by their answers have ad- mitted the execution of the conti'act or policy sued on, as well as the destruction by fire, as alleged by plaintiff, of the prop- erty insured. They have also admitted that notice and proof of loss were duly given in ail the cases sued on, to whieh your attention will be called hereafter. The defendants say that the property destroyed (a stock of clothing) was not of the actual cash value stated by plaintiffs in their petitions, and this presents the first issue of faots for you to determine. You are to consider and decide, in the light of ail the evidence, what was the fair and reasonable cash value of the property in the city of St. Louis on the fourth of April, 1879, when the fire occurred. In determining this question you will consider the character and quality of the goods, their cost, their con- dition, the state of the market, any decline or advauce in value after purchase and before the fire, the iuvoices previ- ously made and the proof of subsequent purchases, as well as ail the facts and circumstances developed in the evidence and bearing upon the subject, and from ail the evidence you will ascertain and by your verdict decide what was the actual cash value of the goods in the store of the plaintiff at the time of the fire and destroyed thereby. By the term "actual cash value" I mean the sum of money the goods would have ����