v.
The Home Insurance Company
— Appellee sued in its own name to recover from the appellant a judgment for a sum of money which appellee had paid to the trustees of a local lodge of a fraternal society to discharge its obligation under a fire insurance policy issued by it insuring the property of the lodge against loss by fire, the property insured, having, as alleged, been destroyed by fire through the instrumentality of fire from one of appellant’s locomotive engines. The trustees of the lodge were made parties defendant to answer as to its interest in the subject-matter of the action. In material substance the averments of the complaint showed that the appellee had on January 22,1910, insured the property of the lodge, a building and its furnishings, against loss by fire for a period of five years to the amount of $1,400; that on July 20, 1911, in the term of the policy of insurance, the property insured, which was located near the track of the appellant’s railroad, was totally destroyed by fire which was directly communicated to the building by sparks and coals of fire emitted from one of appellant’s locomotive engines in use by it on its railroad, whereby appellant became liable to the lodge in damages to an amount equal to the total amount of the insurance ; that the property destroyed was of a value greater than the amount of the insurance and that appellee as it was bound to do by its contract of insurance fully paid to the trustees of the lodge the sum of $1,400 in discharge of its obligation to it under the policy. By reason of these facts, it was averred, appellee became and was entitled to be subrogated to the rights of the trustees and the lodge against appellant to the amount of the sum paid by appellee on the policy of insurance and for this sum it asked judgment against appellant.
In Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Chappell, supra, it was contended that such an act as this, which by its terms is applicable to all railroads in the State, whether organized before the act took effect or after, using fire in their locomotive engines to generate power, must be held to violate the due process clause of the 14th amendment to the Federal Constitution, §21 of the Bill of Rights (Art. 1), of our State Constitution, which forbid the taking of property by law without compensation, and those provisions of our State and Federal Constitutions which forbid laws impairing the obligations of contracts (Constitution, Art. 1, §24; Federal Constitution, Art. 1, §10), when applied, to railroads such as appellant which was organized and in operation before the act became in force. This claim is urged with added earnestness in this case. The basis of the contention is that as the law of the State under which appellant’s railroad was built and put in operation (Subd. 8, §5795 Burns 1914, §4187 R. S. 1881), authorized it to use locomotives propelled by steam power generated by fire and as the law as declared [*361] by this court made it liable for damages caused by fires resulting from the use of its engines only in the event of negligence, it acquired rights which could not be impaired or taken by subsequent legislation. And further, that, as in acquiring its right of way under the power of eminent domain, it was obliged to pay to landowners in taking their land damages resulting to that not taken, measured by the diminution in value of it by the extra danger of fires, the act before us would compel appellant to pay again. These same claims were made in a number of eases cited in the opinion of the court in Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Chappell, supra, and as therein shown can not prevail against the exercise of the police power of the State. Both of them were raised and determined against appellant’s contention with convincing reason in Mathews v. St, Louis, etc., R. Co. (1894), 121 Mo. 298, 24 S. W. 591, 25 L. R. A. 161, which ease was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States. St. Louis, etc., R. Co. v. Mathews (1897), 165 U. S. 1, 17 Sup. Ct. 243, 41 L. Ed. 611.
Passing the suggestion of appellee that appellant has waived these objections by a failure to incorporate them in the memorandum made a part of the demurrer, it may be said that prior to the act of 1911, supra, where insured property had been destroyed by fire'through the negligence of a railroad company it has béen held in this State in har [*362] mony with the rule generally accepted that the payment of the insurance by the insurer amounted to an equitable assignment of so much of the cláim of the insured against the railroad company and subrogated the insurer to the rights of the insured to that extent, for which the right of the insurer, in its own name to sue the railroad company has also been recognized in this State. New York, etc., R. Co. v. Roper (1911), 176 Ind. 497, 96 N. E. 468, 36 L. R. A. (N. S.) 952; Phenix Ins. Co. v. Pennsylvania R. Co. (1893), 134 Ind. 215, 33 N. E. 970, 20 L. R. A. 405; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Germania Ins. Co. (1909), 44 Ind. App. 268, 87 N. E. 995; Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Hobbs (1907), 40 Ind. App. 511, 81 N. E. 90. But it is contended by counsel for appellant that as the act of 1911, supra, expressly vests a right of action in the owner alone, no right of subrogation and no right of action in favor of appellee against appellant can arise; but that on the contrary under its provisions, appellant acquired an insurable interest in the property destroyed and because of this it must be held that the insurance taken by the owner inured to appellant’s benefit and to reduce, when paid, its liability, to that extent, to the owner. The statute in question does give railroad companies an insurable interest in the property upon the routes of the railroads owned or operated by them. But it also points out how this insurable interest may be made available to them as a protection and that is by themselves procuring insurance in their own behalf. Such statutory provisions give them no rights in insurance effected by the owner, nor do they change the ordinary rule that there can be no abatement of damages on the principle of partial compensation received for the injury when it comes from a collateral source wholly independent of the one primarly responsible for the loss. To- agree with appellant in this particular would, of. course, be to concede that the insurer who had contracted with the owner to pay his loss and had paid it could acquire no right of subrogation under such a statute as this.
[*363]
In some states some late statutory provisions have gone beyond that in the act of 1911, supra, which gives a railroad company an insurable interest in the property along its route under which it might take insurance by its own contract, and have expressly given the railroad company the benefit of insurance effected by the owner for himself. Iij the few states in which this has been done, the validity of [*365] the provisions has been left in some doubt by the decisions of the courts. Lyons v. Boston, etc., R. Co. (1902), 181 Mass. 551, 64 N. E. 404; Leavitt v. Canadian Pac. R. Co. (1897), 90 Me. 153, 37 Atl. 886, 38 L. R. A. 152; British, etc., Assur. Co. v. Colorado, etc., R. Co. (1912), 52 Colo. 589, 125 Pac. 508, 41 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1202.
Now the first section of our code as amended in 1911 (Acts 1911 p. 415, §249 Burns 1914), provides: “There [*366] shall be no distinction in pleading and practice between actions at law and suits in equity; and there shall be but one form of action for the enforcement or protection of private rights and the redress of private wrongs, which shall be denominated a civil action. All courts which are vested with jurisdiction both in law and equity may, to the full extent of their respective jurisdictions, administer legal and equitable remedies, in favor of either party, in one and the same suit, so that the legal and equitable rights of the parties may be enforced and protected in one action.” The third section (§251 Burns 1914, §251 R. S. 1881) provides that “every action must be prosecuted in the name of the real party in interest” save certain exceptions named in the following section. Section 19 of the code (§263 Burns 1914, §262 R. S. 1881) requires all persons having an interest in the subject of the action, and in obtaining the relief demanded to be joined as plaintiffs. Section 21 (§270 Burns 1914, §269 R. S. 1881) permits one who should have been joined as plaintiff but refuses to join to be made a defendant. Section 20 (§269 Burns 1914, §268 R. S. 1881) permits any one to be made a defendant who is a necessary party to a complete settlement of the questions involved. It is manifest as has been many times decided that our code has adopted the equity rule and by its requirement that the real party in interest shall sue in his own name has made the owner of a beneficial interest a proper plaintiff.
It being a settled rule that an insurer against loss by fire who pays thereby becomes by subrogation the equitable assignee of any right of action that the owner may have against a third party for the loss to the amount paid, it follows that if the insurance paid is equal to the entire loss the insurer has the equitable title to the entire beneficial interest in the cause of action; and if the insurance is less than the entire loss the insurer has an equitable beneficial interest to the extent of its payment which it holds in common with the owner who retains the rest. And so it has been held that [*367] under code provisions similar to ours, an insurer who has paid to the full sum of the loss might sue on the owner’s cause of action in the insurer’s name. In such case the right of the owner is wholly divested and the whole remedial right is vested in the insurer. 30 Cyc. 48, 49; 27 Am. and Eng. Ency. Law 264; St. Louis, etc., R. Co. v. Commercial Ins. Co. (1891), 139 U. S. 223, 235, 11 Sup. Ct. 554, 35 L. Ed. 154; Traveler’s Ins. Co. v. Great Lakes, etc., Co. (1911), 184 Fed. 426, 107 C. C. A. 20, 36 L. R. A. (N. S.) 60; Marine Ins. Co. v. St. Louis, etc., R. Co. (1890), 41 Fed. 643; Norwich Union Fire Ins. Soc. v. Standard Oil Co. (1894), 59 Fed. 984, 8 C. C. A. 433; Connecticut Fire Ins. Co. v. Erie R. Co. (1878), 73 N. Y. 399, 29 Am. Rep. 171; Southern R. Co. v. Stonewall Ins. Co. (1909), 163 Ala. 161, 50 South. 940; Atchison, etc., R. Co. v. Home Ins. Co. (1898), 59 Kan. 432, 53 Pac. 459; Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Wabash R. Co. (1898), 74 Mo. App. 106; Hamburg-Bremen Fire Ins. Co. v. Atlantic, etc., R. Co. (1903), 132 N. C. 75, 43 S. E. 548; Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Hobbs, supra, and cases there cited. Where the loss is greater than the insurance, the rule in this State, and declared in cases which seem to express the truest spirit of the codes outside of this State, is that the insured and the insurer each having a beneficial interest in the cause of action may join as plaintiffs. 30 Cyc. 51; Bliss, Code Pleading (3d ed.) §65; Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Hobbs supra, Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Falk (1900), 62 Ohio St. 297, 300, 56 N. E. 1020; Swarthout v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1880), 49 Wis. 625, 6 N. W. 314; Hustisford, etc., Ins. Co. v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1886), 66 Wis. 58, 28 N. W. 64; Wundelich v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1896), 93 Wis. 132, 66 N. W. 1144; Fairbanks v. San Francisco, etc., R. Co. (1897), 115 Cal. 579, 47 Pac. 450; Firemen’s Fund Ins. Co. v. Oregon R., etc., Co. (1904), 45 Or. 53, 76 Pac. 1075, 67 L. R. A. 161, 2 Ann. Cas. 360; St. Louis, etc., R. Co. v. Miller (1901), 27 Tex. Civ. App. 344, 66 S. W. 139; Mobile Ins. Co. v. Columbia, etc., R. Co., supra. See, also, Gaugler v. Chicago, [*368] etc., R. Co. (1912), 197 Fed. 79; Insurance Co. v. Martin (1894), 139 Ind. 317, 37 N. E. 394; Home Ins. Co. v. Gelman (1887), 112 Ind. 7, 13 N. E. 118; Franklin Fire Ins. Co. v. Wolf (1899), 23 Ind. App. 549, 54 N. E. 772. There are cases which hold the contrary and, where the loss exceeds the insurance, that the action must be brought in the name of the insured. This is' put on the ground of the indivisibility of the cause of action and the rule against splitting a cause of action and subjecting a defendant to more than one action on the same cause. Under the provisions of our code emphasizing the equity rule, and requiring all parties who have a remedial interest in the cause of action to be brought in and so settle in the one action all the interests inhering in the subject-matter of the action, the vice at which these cases are aimed is guarded against and the reason for the rule, therefore, does not obtain under our code. As said in Gaugler v. Chicago, etc., R. Co., supra, they hack back 130 years to a case decided on the ground that things in action were not transferable.
Moreover it is made clear by answers returned to interrogatories submitted to the jury that the settlements made between the owner and the appellant was for the amount of the loss in excess of the insurance; that is, it was for the part of the cause of action which remained in the owner and [*371] which he of course had a right to settle. Having done so the rest of it of which appellee was the equitable owner was all that there was left of the remedial right and appellant was in no way harmed by the ruling on the demurrers to the replies.
Numerous errors are asserted under the assignment that the court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial. These are based on the alleged insufficiency of the evidence, the giving of a number of instructions claimed to be erroneous and the refusal to give instructions requested by appellant. The evidence is not in the record. In so far as the questions raised by this assignment of error are available they have been determined by the conclusions reached on the other questions raised. Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 108 N. E. 525. As to insurer’s right to subrogation, see 44 Am. St. 731; 1 Ann. Cas. 885; 18 Ann. Cas. 710. As to sufficiency of general allegations of negligence, see 59 L. R. A. 234. Whether the insurer who has paid a loss can. maintain action against the party causing the loss, see 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 922. As to contributory negligence as defense in an action under statute making a railroad liable for setting fire, see Ann. Cas. 1914 D. 934. See, also, under (1, 2) 3 C. J. 785-788; 2 Cyc. 691; (3) 33 Cyc. 1354, 1355; (4) 8 Cyc. 1099; (5) 19 Cyc. 584, 897 ; 33 Cyc. 1350; (6) 19 Cyc. 894 ; 37 Cyc. 363; (7) 19 Cyc. 893, 583; (8) 19 Cyc..S97; 33 Cyc. 1350; (9) 31 Cyc. 321; (10) 19 Cyc. 975; (11) 31 Cyc. 320; (12) 19 Cyc. 894.