Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/353

 3)9 U. 8. 8.t.m,, of th C Tas action was brought by plaintiff, who is the defendant in error, in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia for the purpose of recovering an amount' alleged to be due the plaintiff from the defendant-(plaintiff in error) on a policy of reinsurance. The plaintiff obtained judgment in the trial court, which was affirmed in the Court of Appeals of the Dis- trict. The plaintiff had originally insurel the lroperty which was destroyed, and had prior to the loss reinsured a proportion of the original insurance with .the defendant company. After such reinsurance the plaintiff suffered heavy Ioes by reason of the great fire in the city o Baltimore in the month of Feb- ruary, 1904, for which 1oses it became liable, and was rendered thereby insolvent, and is unable to pay the same, unless the plaintiff is able to collect the amount due it from the defend- ant by virtue of its reinsurance policies, and from other corpo- rate fire insurance companies with which plaintiff had con- tracts of reinsurance. By reason of the insolvency of the corporation a receiver was appointed, by a decree of the Cir- enit Court of Baltimore city, prior to the commencement of this zction. Upon the trial the plaintiff proved a cause of action against the defendant, unless the facts, which it also proved, that it had become insolvent by reason of the losses sustained by it incident to the Baltimore fire in 1904, and that a receiver bad been appointed for it by the court in Maryland, and that the receiver had paid to its creditors, after this suit was brought, but fifty-five per cent of the amount of its liability, amounted to a defense. The contract between the plaintiff and defendant was de- scribed therein as a "reinsurance compact," and in it the de- fendant agreed to "reinsure the Firemen'Insurance Company" in the amounts and manner therein stated. There were contained in the compact, and forming part thereof, the following subdivisions: "10. Upon receiving notice of any loss or claim under any

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