1. The point made on the fact that after the amendment1-was allowed, no further evidence was offered and the case was immediately put to the jury, has nothing to rest upon; for it is a settled principle that the legal effect of an amendment is to put the case in the same plight and condition, as if the matter introduced by the amendment had been inserted in the original proceeding at the outset. So here it is the same in legal effect, as if “ the application ” had been set out in “ the complaint ” when it was originally filed. Now this familiar principle follows the rule in equity procedure “no matter can be allowed to be introduced by way of amendment, unless it existed at the time the original bill was filed.” If it occurred since it can only be brought to the notice of the Court, and become a part of the proceedings by means of a supplemental bill.
2. The seeming discrepancy in the finding of the jury upon the several issues, is explained by adverting to the fact that the defendants did not insure the full value of the building or goods, consequently the finding “ of which the sum of $162 is the value of the store,” should be read “ is the damage on accoimi of the destruction of the store” and “ $2,600 the value of the *125stock on hand ” should be read, “ is the damage on account of the destruction of the goods.” This is clear after the rubbish is cleared off. Ent it is really provoking that gentlemen of the bar, under the privilege accorded to them by C. C. P., pay so little attention to the “ making up ” of cases for the Supreme Court, and throw upon the Justices so milch unnecessary labor.The counsel for the appellant is not justifiable in making up a ease in such a way as to leave this Court in doubt as to the point intended to be made -f every intendment must be made against the appellant.
S. Among the printed matter endorsed on the policy is a stipulation as follows : “ The Company shall' have the option, when the insurance may be on goods, to supply goods of like kind, &c., and when the insurance may be on houses, &c., the Company shall have the option with all convenient speed to rebuild,” &c. As we understand.the case, the Company made no offer to rebuild before the action was commenced, or at any time before the trial or after the trial up this date, and the gravaman is, that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence. *
"With that question we have nothing to do, and we cannot advert to the testimony of several witnesses, professing to be master mechanics, except as tending to show that the prejudice of juries is against insurance companies. It can-duly be construed by the Judge before-whom the trial is had,, whether it be the cause or the effect of the many references and counter references, in “the policy,” to “the conditions endorsed,” and in “ the conditions endorsed ” to the “ application ” and so in a circle, certain it is that the papers in a policy of insurance are so mixed up and involved that no ordinary man can be. supposed to have perused and fully understood them.
4. “ The defendant asked the Court to charge that from- ‘the application ’ it appeared that an inventory was to be taken every three months; that it was taken on the 1st January; 1872, and the fire occurred on the 4th of April, 1872,. and that inasmuch as the plaintiff swore he had made no other inventory *126than the one in January, he did not comply with the condition set out in the application and could not recover.”
“ This instruction was declined by his Honor, and defendant excepted.”
The prayer for this instruction, although argumentative and not very happily expr’essed, raises the question as to the proper construction and legal effect of so much of “ the application ” as relates to the talcing of inventories.
We think his Honor did not err in declining to give this instruction, and concur with him in the opinion that the construction contended for was an attempt to strain this clause of “ the application ” beyond the meaning, that can be fairly put on the words used, and to give to it the legal effect of a condition by which the policy was to be defeated and become of no force, by reason of a collateral matter not effecting and relating to the cause of the loss, but at most amounting to a mode of proof in respect to the extent of the loss, in the event of a fire when the omission would be compensated for, by the presumption which j urors are directed to make against all parties who have agreed, covenanted or warranted to do t>r not to do anyNact for breach of which they are liable in damages. The omission to take an inventory at the very day might have had its influence with the jury. But the notion that the omission to take an inventory of the goods in a country store precisely three months after the 1st day of January, 1872, and for no other reason than that the labor should be done, for how “ the inventory is to be made or what is tobe its form and purpose,” how it is to be preserved and in what manner the defendant is to make it available, is not set out.
Look at the application, “questions and answers,” and take it to be intended to be a part of the contract, or policy of insurance. “ E. g., how often is account of stock taken ? When was it last, and what amount did it reach ? Answer: Every three months — 1st January, 1872, $4,000.” This is all that is written or printed.
Would it from these words enter into the head of any fair *127minded mail to suppose that by these words it was the intention of the insurance company' to impose, or of the insured to enter into a condition to the effect that if from any cause he should' omit to take an inventory of his stock of goods, on the very day oí the expiration of three months after the 1st January, 1872, and so from three months to three months to the very day, not excepting Sundays or unavoidable or excusable causes of delay, the policy was to become void and of no force ?
We have the authority of Lord Coke for the principle, but in truth, it needs no authority, a condition by which an estate is to be defeated or by which a right is not to accrue, must be expressed in direct words, and in the absence of direct words of condition the construction will be in favor of a warranty or covenant or stipulation to be satisfied by compensation or damages instead of a penalty or forfeiture of the entire amount.
If in our case, instead of a mere question and answer as to the inventory, apt words of condition had been used in substance : This application being the basis of the policy, and being so expressly referred to, now the condition of this policy is that provided the said Spencer D. Wynne shall fail at the expiration of three months, after the said 1st day of January, 1872, and of each succeeding three months thereafter, to make a full and complete inventory of his stock of goods and to enter the same upon his books, subject to the inspection of the insurance company, “ then this policy is to be void. There would be sense in it — fair play.”
But the suggestion that this provision, however artificial and cunningly inserted, can' have the legal effect of a condition precedent, by which the policy of insurance is to be void and of no effect, cannot for a moment be entertained in a court of justice, without submitting to the degradation of being made an instrument of an insurance company to evade the payment of a loss fairly incurred upon grounds technical and untenable.
No error.
Pee Cueiaii. Judgment affirmed.