State Codes and Statutes
Statutes > Missouri > T24 > C379 > 379_145Property insured in more than one company.
379.145. 1. When fire insurance policies shall be hereafterissued or renewed by more than one company upon the sameproperty, and suit shall be brought upon any of said policies,the defendant shall not be permitted to deny that the propertyinsured was worth the aggregate of the several amounts for whichit was insured at the time the policy was issued or renewedthereon, unless willful fraud or misrepresentation is shown onpart of the insured in obtaining such additional insurance; andin such suit the measure of damage shall be as provided insection 379.140; provided, that whatever depreciation in valuebelow the amount for which the property is insured may be shown,as provided in section 379.140, shall be deducted from the amountinsured in each policy, in the proportion which the amount ineach such policy bears to the aggregate of all the amounts soinsured on such property.
2. This and section 379.140 shall apply only to realproperty insured.
3. Any condition in any policy of insurance contrary to theprovisions of this chapter shall be illegal and void.
(RSMo 1939 § 5931)Prior revisions: 1929 § 5820; 1919 § 6230; 1909 § 7021
(1964) Measure of damages in suit on fire insurance policy in absence of fraud is arbitrarily fixed at the amount for which property was insured, less depreciation, and court is foreclosed from considering whether insured, if it recovers on more than one policy, will have received more insurance than property was worth. MFA Mutual Ins. Co. v. Southwest Baptist Col., Inc. (Mo.), 381 S.W.2d 797.
(1970) The valued policy laws of Missouri are not limited in their application to insurance against loss by fire of improvements on real property but apply as well to policies of fire insurance on personal property. Prior cases to the contrary were overruled. Duckworth v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. (A.), 452 S.W.2d 280.
