Oliver v. The Mutual Commercial Marine Ins. Co. cause to an assessor, that the amount should be increased or diminished here as might be found just. Let the case be referred to an assessor to ascertain the amount of damage, including the damage done to the sugars, by the stranding alleged in the libel, or by bad storage, if any, and all moneys paid by the libellant to the respondents to relieve the goods from an asserted claim for salvage compensation, making to the respondents all just allowances. F. C. Loring, for libellant. EDWARD OLIVER US. THE MUTUAL COMMERCIAL MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY. If a policy, when drawn and received, does not correctly express a previously concluded agreement for insurance, which it was designed by both parties to execute, equity will reform it. If underwriters conclude an agreement for insurance with one known to them to be merely an agent, and nothing is said as to whose account the insurance is to be made, the agent has a right to a policy insuring him as agent, or for whom it concerns. If the agent makes a mistake in declaring the interest, equity requires it to be corrected, and the policy reformed. There is a distinction between the correction of a mistake in a written contract, and in the execution of a power; in the latter case, Courts interpose more willingly. But if the agent did not declare the interest in the wrong person by mistake, but through a fraudulent design, equity will not relieve the principal. If a party fails, through mistake, to obtain such a policy as he is entitled to, by an existing valid contract, equity will relieve, though the mistake arose from ignorance of law. THIS bill was filed by Edward Oliver, an alien, against the Commercial Mutual Marine Insurance Company, a corpora Oliver v. The Mutual Commercial Marine Ins. Co. tion created by a law of the State of Massachusetts, and established and doing business in that State, to have an alleged mistake corrected in a policy of insurance. The case being somewhat complicated in point of fact, the opinion of the Court will be better understood by giving the substance of the bill and of the answer. The correspondence, and such of the evidence as was deemed material, are set forth in the opinion of the Court. The substance of the statements in the bill was as follows: "And thereupon, your orator complains and says, That, on the seventh day of November, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, he was the sole owner of a ship or vessel of the value of twenty thousand dollars, called the Liscard, then lying at Quebec, in the province of Lower Canada, and bound on a voyage from said Quebec to a port of discharge in said United Kingdom, on board which said ship there had been, and was then laden, a cargo of merchandise, the property of various persons other than your orator, and which said merchandise your orator had agreed should be conveyed in said ship from said Quebec, to said port of discharge, for a certain amount of hire or freight to be paid him by said parties. respectively therefor, amounting in the whole, to the sum of nine thousand dollars. And your orator being desirous to procure said vessel and said freight to be insured for said voyage, at and from said Quebec to said port of discharge, namely, the said ship for the sum of ten thousand dollars, valued at twenty thousand dollars, and said freight for the sum of five thousand dollars, valued at nine thousand dollars, against the perils of the seas and other risks usually contained in marine policies of insurance on property of such description, did, in writing by letter, bearing date November seventh, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, request his agent, one James E. Oliver, of said Quebec, to procure the same to be insured on account of your orator, and to have the policies of insur Oliver v. The Mutual Commercial Marine Ins. Co. ance thereon in the name of your orator, a copy of which letter, marked (A), your orator hereto annexes and prays that the same may be taken as part of this, his bill of complaint. "And your orator further showeth unto your Honors, that said James E. Oliver, afterwards on the day of the same November, in compliance with the request of your orator, did, through one Henry McKay, of Montreal, broker, request one A. McLimont, of the city and State of New York, insurance broker, to procure said insurance upon said ship and said freight to be made and effected at some proper and solvent insurance company in said New York, or in Boston in said State of Massachusetts, and did cause to be transmitted to said A. McLimont, insurance broker as aforesaid, a copy of your orator's said letter, bearing date the said seventh day of November; and thereupon the said McLimont being unable to procure said insurance to be made and effected for a reasonable premium in said New York, did, in writing, authorize, and request one David R. McKay, of said Boston, commission merchant, to cause said insurance to be made and effected by some proper insurance company in said Boston, which said written request and authority so given by said McLimont to said McKay, was and is contained in two certain letters written by the said McLimont to the said McKay, one of which letters bears date the twenty-eighth day of this same November, and the other of said letters bears date the twenty-ninth day of the same November; and your orator hereto annexes copies of both said letters marked (B. and C), and prays that the same may be taken as part of this, his bill of complaint. "And your orator further shows, that in said letter of said McLimont, bearing date the twenty-eighth day of said November, by accident and mistake, the said McKay was directed to cause said ship to be insured for the sum of eight thousand dollars, to be valued at the sum of sixteen thousand dollars, and said freight to be insured for the sum of four thousand dollars, and to be valued at the sum of seven thousand two Oliver v. The Mutual Commercial Marine Ins. Co. hundred dollars; and in and by said letter of said McLimont to said McKay, bearing date the said twenty-ninth day of November, said mistake was in part corrected, and said McKay was directed to insure said ship for the sum of ten thousand dollars and to insure said freight for the sum of five thousand dollars; but by accident and mistake the sum for which said ship and said freight were to be valued thereon was wholly omitted. "And your orator further shows unto your Honors, that the said McKay, after receiving said letters on the twenty-ninth day of said November, did apply to the said Commercial Mutual Marine Insurance Company to make insurance upon said ship and freight for your orators, according to the order and request of said McLimont, and did then and there exhibit both said letters of said McLimont to said Insurance. Company, with the intent to inform said Insurance Company as well of the relation of said McLimont as agent of the owners of said ship, as to enable them to determine the character of the risk to be insured; and said Insurance Company did thereafterwards read and examine said letters, and on the same day agree with said McKay, acting as the agent of your orator, to insure the said ship on the voyage aforesaid, at and from said Quebec, for the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be valued at the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and to insure the said freight of said ship on said voyage for the sum of five thousand dollars, to be valued at the sum of seven thousand two hundred dollars, and to receive as a premium therefor, the sum of eight hundred and twenty-five dollars. "And your orator further shows unto your Honors, that, thereafterwards, on the first day of December of the same year, the said Insurance Company, with the intent and design to carry into effect said agreement, did cause to be made a writing or policy of insurance, signed by the president and secretary, bearing date the said first day of December, a copy of which is hereto annexed, marked (D), which your orator prays may be Oliver v. The Mutual Commercial Marine Ins. Co. taken as part of this his bill of complaint, and did deliver said policy to said McKay, the agent of your orator, as aforesaid, and did receive from said McKay, the agent of your orator, said premium of eight hundred and twenty-five dollars, which sum was thereafterwards by your orator repaid to said McKay. "And your orator further shows unto your Honors, that, although when said Insurance Company had so agreed to insure said ship and freight for the amounts aforesaid, it was well known to said Insurance Company that said A. Mc Limont was merely the agent of the owner of said ship and of the person entitled to, and solely interested in said freight; and that he, said McLimont, had no insurable or other interest whatever in either said ship or said freight, and that said McLimont was, by profession and pursuit a mere insurance broker, and that he was acting as the agent of the person who owned said ship and who was solely interested in said freight, and yet by accident and mistake said insurance on said ship and said freight was, by the terms of said policy, declared to be on account of said A. McLimont, and without adding thereto the word agent or any other term indicating that he, the said McLimont, was insured as said agent of the party owning said ship aud interested in said freight, and without the usual clause commonly inserted in such policies, that said insurance was effected for whom it might concern. "And your orator further shows unto your Honors, that said Insurance Company knew, and was distinctly informed by said McKay by said letter of said McLimont to said McKay, bearing date the said twenty-eighth day of November, and submitted to and read by them as aforesaid, that said McLimont was the mere agent of, and broker for the owner of said ship, and had no interest whatever in said ship or freight, except so far as he would be entitled to the usual commission of a broker for procuring said insurance; and that said Insurance Company did agree, consent, and understand at the time said agreement to insure said ship and freight was made with |