Section 379.140

Title XXIV BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Chapter 379

Effective - 28 Aug 1939, 2 histories, see footnote   (history) 

  379.140.  Company not to deny value — full amount of policy to be paid. — In all suits brought upon policies of insurance against loss or damage by fire hereafter issued or renewed, the defendant shall not be permitted to deny that the property insured thereby was worth at the time of the issuing of the policy the full amount insured therein on said property; and in case of total loss of the property insured, the measure of damage shall be the amount for which the same was insured, less whatever depreciation in value, below the amount for which the property is insured, the property may have sustained between the time of issuing the policy and the time of the loss, and the burden of proving such depreciation shall be upon the defendant; and in case of partial loss, the measure of damage shall be that portion of the value of the whole property insured, ascertained in the manner prescribed in this chapter, which the part injured or destroyed bears to the whole property insured.

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(RSMo 1939 § 5930)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 5819; 1919 § 6229; 1909 § 7020

(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.

(1964) Where fire loss exceeded aggregate of two fire policies, one insurer could not limit recovery to value of insurer's interest as vendor under sale contract. Miller v. National Fire Insurance Company (A.), 386 S.W.2d 668.

(1969) This section does not preclude insurer from questioning whether original insurable interest has been terminated.  Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance Co. v. Edmister (A.), 412 F.2d 351

(1970) Valued policy laws are not limited to insurance against loss by fire of improvements on real property but apply as well to policies of fire insurance on personal property.  Duckworth v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 452 S.W.2d 280 (Mo.App.).