Lawyers' Reports, 1905: The legal definition of a storage structure as a temporary shelter versus a residency dwelling as defined by Insurance

this 1905 legal book is amazingly well-written

I'll see if it is archived. Otherwise I'll transcribe parts of it!

https://archive.org/search.php?query=lawyers%27%20reports

tons of them. But book 30?

 this should have it!

A dwelling house means a place of abode — a habitation — a 
house occupied or intended to be occupied as a residence.

Occupation of a dwelling house primarily implies a living in it, and 
consequently a fair and reasonable interpretation of the words ** vacant  

and unoccupied" when used to describe a dwelling house. would seem to be that  

the house is without an occupant — without some person living in it. 

  It is not a mere casual or occasional sleeping in the house that constitutes an occupancy of it.

The element of a fixed abode is an essential ingredient of every concept of occupancy 
when applied to a dwelling house; and the term ** unoccupied" is employed to express 
the directly opposite condition.

A political or a commercial residence does not necessarily 

involve an actual occupancy of a particular place.

Such a residence is largely a question of intention ; whereas an 
occupancy of a particular place as a dwelling 
is not a matter of intention at all, but purely 
one of fact, and is absolutely inseparable from 
an actual, obvious abiding or living there.

If, therefore, the house be not used as a dwelling house in which 
people live and have their abode, it is unoccupied even though some 

of the owner's property may be stored there and even

though occasionally some one may sleep there.  

If used for these last-named purposes it may be a place of storage or  

of temporary shelter but it is obviously no longer occupied as a dwelling house.

he left the place in November leaving the dwelling furnished and in charge of 
his farmer, who occupied the farm house, a 
different structure, and members of whose 
familv visited and aired the dwelling once 
a week. The plaintiff and his wife also visited it once a fortnight. [26 nights a year]

Besides the furniture all the summer clothing of the plaintiff 
and his family was left in the dwelling.

During a portion 
of the time from March, 1893, down to the 
fall of the same year, two and sometimes 
three of the workmen employed by the ap- 
pellee upon his farm and in his canning busi- 
ness slept in the house described in the in- 
surance policy, but they did not occupy it 
during the daytime, and did not cook or eat 
their meals there. Within a week before 
the destruction of the house by fire a man in 
the service of the appellee spent one night 
in the house; and occasionally whilst the 
hands slept there one of the sons of the ap- 
pellee also slept in the house.

So a dwelling house and barn are ** unoccupied" 
if the former is used by the insured and his 
servants for the sole purpose of taking meals 
there while working upon an adjacent farm 
and the barn is a mere storage room.

these words : ** That there 
is no evidence in this case that the dwelling 
house that was destroyed bv fire, as testified 
to, was occupied as a dwelling, within the 
proper construction of the policy of Insurance offered in evidence in this case, on the 
27th day of December, 1893, or that it had 
been so occupied at any time within ten days 
preceding said fire, and that no agreement 
permitting the property to be vacant and un- 
occupied was endorsed or added to the pol- 
icy of insurance offered in evidence, and their 
verdict must be for the defendant."

Unoccupied signifies not used as a residence

Hence...so long as it ceases to be a place of actual abode - a place really occupied - it is vacant or unoccupied....The element of a fixed abode is an essential ingredient for every concept of occupancy when applied to a dwelling house.