RISKS AND PERILS. In Insurance. Those causes against loss from which the insurer is to be protected in virtue of the contract for insurance.
The risk or peril in a life policy is death ; under a fire policy, damage by fire; and under a marine policy, by perils of the seas, usually including fire ; and under a policy upon subjects at risk in lake, river, or canal navigation, by perils of the same. See IN SURABLE INTEREST; INSURANCE; POLICY; WARRANTY.
Under a marine insurance the risks are from a certain place to a certain other, or from one date to another. The perils usu ally insured against "perils of the seas" a•e—fire, lightning, winds, waves, rocks, shoals, and collisions, and also the perils of hostile capture, piracy, theft, arrest, bar ratry, and jettisons. 1 Phill. Ins. § 1099. But a distinction is made between the ex traordinary action of perils of the seas, for which underwriters are liable, and wear and tear and deterioration by. decay, for which they are not liable.; 1 Phill. Ins. § 1105. See PERILS OF THE SEA.
Perils of lakes, rivers, etc., are analogous to those of the seas ; 1. Phill. Ins. § 1099, n.
Underwriters are not liable for loss occa sioned by the gross misconduct of the as sured or imputable to him; Biddle, Ins. 981; but if a vessel is seaworthy, with suitable officers and crew, underwriters are liable for loss though occasioned through the mistakes or want of assiduity and vigilance of the offi cers or men ; 1 Phill. Ins. § 1049 ; Beach,
Ins. 922. Underwriters are not answerable for loss directly attributable to the qualifica tions of the insured subject, independently of the specified risks ; 1 Phillips, Ins. c. xiii. sect. v. ; or for loss distinctly occasioned by the fraudulent or gross negligence of the as sured.
Insurance against illegal risks—such as trading with an enemy, the slave-trade, piratical cruisers, and illegal kinds of busi ness—is void ; 1 Phill. Ins. §§ 210, 691. Poli cies usually contain express exceptions of some risks besides those irnpliedly excepted. These may be—in maritime insurance, con traband and illicit, interloping, trade, viola tion of blockade, mobs and civil commotions ; in fire policies, loss on jewelry, paintings, sculpture, by hazardous trades, etc.; in life policies, loss by suicide, risk in certain cli mates or localities, and in certain hazardous employments without express permission ; 1 Phill. Ins. §§ 55, 63, 64. See Loss; TOTAL Loss ; AVERAGE; PERILS OF TEE SEA.