Loss in the United States

Loss Definition

In insurance. The destruction of or damage to the insured subject by the perils insured against, according to the express provisions and construction of the contract. These accidents, or misfortunes, or perils, as they are usually denominated, are all distinctly enumerated in the policy. And no loss, however great or unforeseen, can be a loss within the policy unless it be the direct and immediate consequence (according to the definition of Loss based on the Cyclopedic Law Dictionary ; this definition may need to be proofread) of one or more of these perils. Loss under a life policy is simply the death of the subject by a cause the risk of which is not expressly excepted in the policy, and where the loss is not fraudulent, as where one assured, who assures the life of another for his own benefit, procures the death. Loss in insurance against fire must, under the usual form of policy, be by the partial or total destruction or damage of the thing insured by fire. In maritime insurance, in which loss by fire is one of the risks usually included, the loss insured against may be absolutely or constructively total, or a partial or general average loss, or a particular average. A partial loss is any loss or damage short of, or not amounting to, a total loss; for if it be not the latter, it must be the former.

A total loss is such destruction of, or damage to, the thing insured that it is of little or no value to the owner. Partial losses are sometimes denominated average losses, because they are often in the nature of those losses which are the subject of average contributions; and they are distinguished Into general and particular averages. See “Average.” Total losses, in maritime insurance, are absolutely such when the entire thing perishes or becomes of no value. Constructively, a loss may become total where the value remaining is of such a small amount that the whole may be surrendered.

Loss in the Dictionaries.

Loss meaning

The fact of no longer having the disposition of an object or right. Thus loss is synonymous to damages (q.v.). Mason v. City of Albertville, 276 Ala. 68, 158 So.2d 924, 927.

Ensuing Loss

by Robert A. James and Thomas L. Libby

In December 1910, in a case that has sent aftershocks into the 21st century, the California Supreme Court held that damage to a wine business after the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire was caused by the blaze and not by the temblor itself (California Wine Association v. Commercial Union Fire Ins. Co. of New York, 159 Cal. 49 (1910)).

Though the finding seems mundane, the trial courts had been barraged with post-quake lawsuits between property owners and insurance companies over the finer points of seismic shaking (which the policies didn’t cover) and fire-related fiascos (which they did). The pivotal California Wine decision upheld a 1908 trial court verdict in favor of the insured.

The plaintiff’s attorney – Alfred Sutro of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) – established the concept of “ensuing loss” when he convinced first a state and then a federal jury that the damage was caused by fires that were legally distinguishable from the quake.

Hours after the earth shook that April morning, for example, someone making a stovetop breakfast sent sparks through a cracked chimney, igniting what has become known as the Ham and Eggs Fire. The blaze spread toward several buildings, including San Francisco City Hall.

Ensuing loss remains a vital issue in insurance cases today, arising any time an insured event, such as wind or fire, is preceded by uninsured perils, like an earthquake or flood. The argument has been invoked after such calamities as Hurricane Katrina, the Northridge Quake, and Mount St. Helens volcanic activity.

Loss in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

For starting research in the law of a foreign country:

Link	Description
Loss	Loss in the World Legal Encyclopedia.
Loss	Loss in the European Legal Encyclopedia.
Loss	Loss in the Asian Legal Encyclopedia.
Loss	Loss in the UK Legal Encyclopedia.
Loss	Loss in the Australian Legal Encyclopedia.

Loss

Loss in the United States

Loss Definition

Loss meaning

Ensuing Loss

Loss in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

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Further Reading (Articles)