Sect. 444. policies, and are, probably for that reason, comparatively of Stamping of mixed policies. 445. By the Stamp Act, 1891, s. 94, "where any sea insurance is made for a voyage, and also for time, or to extend to or cover any time beyond thirty days after the ship shall have arrived at her destination and been there moored at anchor, the policy is to be charged with duty as a policy for a voyage, and also with duty as a policy for time." (q) 2 Benecke, System des Assecuranz, c. viii. introductory section, p. 203, 446. THE clause describing the voyage by its termini is distinct in our English policies from that which defines the commencement, continuance, and end of the risk. This latter clause, upon the construction of which the nature of the contract between the parties so materially depends, is in Lloyd's policies in the following form : 66 'Beginning the adventure upon the said goods and merchandises from the loading thereof on board the said endure, during her abode there, upon the said ship, upon the said ship, &c., until she hath moored at voyage. See, e.g., Hyderabad Dec- (a) By express stipulation the risk is sometimes made to attach during a land transit preceding the marine Clause fixing the duration of the risk. Sect. 446. Commencement of the As there are many decisions on the construction of this clause, and as the duration of the risk varies upon the different subjects of insurance, it will conduce to clearness if we discuss separately the duration of the risk: (1) on goods; (2) on ship; (3) on freight. 447. "Beginning the adventure upon the said goods and risk on goods, merchandises from the loading thereof on board the said The commencement of the risk may be varied by a special clause. ship." The first observation on that part of the above clause which fixes the duration of the risk on goods is, that the common form of policy in this country affords no protection against those dangers to which the goods are exposed in being carried in boats or lighters from the quays or wharves of the port of loading to the ship's side. In this respect our practice differs from that of almost all continental states, which either decree by their laws or stipulate in their policies that the risk of the underwriters on goods shall commence directly the goods leave the shore in order to be loaded on board the ship (b). Of course goods, even in this country, may be protected while thus in transit from quay to ship by any express clause in the policy duly framed for the purpose. Thus, where a policy on goods at and from St. Petersburg to London con (b) Thus the German Commercial Code (art. 824) provides that the risk on goods shall begin immediately from the time the goods leave the shore. By the Russian Commercial Code (art. 567) and the Egyptian Maritime Code (art. 184) the beginning of the risk is the same, unless the policy itself provides otherwise. By the Belgian Maritime Code (art. 172), when the duration of the risk is not settled by the policy, it runs as to goods from the moment they are loaded in the ship, or in lighters to convey them there. The Commercial Codes of Holland (art. 627) and of Spain (arts. 733, 761) go even further, and declare that the risk on goods shall commence from the time they are brought down to the quay or wharf in order to be loaded on board. The French Code de Commerce (arts. 328, 341) makes the risk attach from the loading of the goods on board the ship or the lighters that are to convey them thither. For the former laws of continental countries, see 3 BoulayPaty, Droit Mar. tit. x. s. 9, pp. 418420; 2 Emerigon, c. xiii. s. 2, p. 48; and 2 Benecke, System des Assecuranz, c. viii. s. 1, p. 205; Nolte's ed. vol. i. pp. 641-646. tained this clause: "Beginning the adventure on the said Sect. 447. goods from and immediately following the loading thereof on board boats at St. Petersburg;" it was not disputed that the risk on the goods commenced directly they were put on board boats at St. Petersburg to be loaded (in the usual course of trade there) on board the ship at Cronstadt (c). ment of the clause. 448. "From the loading thereof on board the said ship at." CommenceUpon the construction of these words it has been decisively risk under the established that a policy on goods for a voyage "at and from" ordinary a specified terminus in which the risk is expressed to begin "from the loading thereof on board the ship," in the common form, will only attach upon goods loaded on board at the very place named as the terminus a quo of the voyage (d); and this even though it should plainly appear, from extrinsic evidence, that the underwriters knew that the goods had in fact been loaded on board prior to the ship's arrival at the place specified in the policy as the terminus a quo of the voyage, and that the assured effected the insurance with the intention of protecting the goods so loaded elsewhere (e). (c) Hurry v. Royal Exch. Ass. Co. (1801), 2 B. & P. 430; see per Heath, J., ibid. 435. A clause such as "including risk of craft to and from the vessel' is commonly inserted in English policies. In some companies' policies a clause providing that "the insurance shall commence from the time when the goods shall be laden on board the said ship, or vessel, craft, or boat, as above" has taken the place of the ordinary clause relating to the commencement of the risk. See McArthur, p. 90. It is now also common to insert in Lloyd's policies a clause, called the "warehouse to warehouse" clause, which covers "all and every risk in craft to and/or from the vessel or vessels, and all risks, including fire, from the warehouse of the consignor by any conveyances by land or by water, and until safely delivered into the warehouses of the (d) Robertson v. French (1803), 4 (e) Per Bayley, J., in Gladstone v. Clay (1813), 1 M. & S. 423; per Lord Denman in Rickman e. Carstairs (1833), 5 B. & Ad. 663; and see the facts of Robertson v. French (1803), 4 East, 130; Spitta v. Woodman (1810), 2 Taunt. 416; Langhorn v. Hardy (1812), 4 Taunt. 620, in all which it plainly appeared that the underwriters knew the goods had been previously loaded, The prin Sect. 448. Most of these cases arose during the great wars of the French Revolution, when, in consequence of Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees, goods really shipped in this country were constantly insured as though shipped at some Baltic port. Spitta v. Rickman v. Thus, to take one case as an illustration of many: a cargo insured "at and from Gottenburg to the ship's port or ports of discharge in the Baltic," with the usual clause, "beginning the adventure on the said goods from the loading thereof on board the said ship," had been loaded at London, carried to Gottenburg, where it was not taken out nor reloaded, and after leaving Gottenburg was totally lost by capture. Although the policy on which the action was brought was proved by parol evidence to be in continuation of another policy, from London to Gottenburg, effected with the same underwriter, as he well knew, the Court felt themselves bound by the express words of the policy, and held that, as the goods had been loaded on board, not at Gottenburg, the terminus a quo of the voyage insured, but at a previous port, the policy never attached at all, and that the assured could recover nothing (ƒ). In this case the risk was made to begin on the goods "from the loading thereof on board the ship" in blank, i.e., without saying where of course, if the risk is from their being "loaded on board the ship at" the terminus a quo or other named place, the reason for a strict construction of the policy is still more cogent (g). 449. The strict rule of construction was not relaxed in the later case of Rickman v. Carstairs, which was an action on a policy on ship and goods for a homeward voyage "at and from the coast of Africa" to the ship's port of discharge in ciple of these decisions has been (f) Spitta v. Woodman (1810), 2 ing on board ship," without more. (9) See, accordingly, Robertson . French (1803), 4 East, 130; Horneyer v. Lushington (1812), 15 East, 46; Langhorn v. Hardy (1812), 4 Taunt. 630; in all which the risk was made to commence from the loading on board at a named place. |