Law of Insurance Contracts
Chapter 15
THE INSURANCE CONTRACT: CONSTRUCTION1
15-1 INTENTION
“[T]he same rule of construction which applies to all other instruments applies equally to this instrument of a policy of insurance, viz, that it is to be construed according to its sense and meaning, as collected from the terms used in it, which terms are themselves to be understood in their plain, ordinary and popular sense, unless they have generally in respect to the subject matter, as by the known usage of trade, or the like, acquired a peculiar sense distinct from the popular sense of the same words; or unless the context evidently points out that they must … be understood in some other special and peculiar sense.”2