The Colonsay Hotel – Canada’s “Leading Case” in Insurance Valuation Law

The Colonsay Hotel around the time it was built in 1910. Source

The Colonsay Hotel was at the centre of a major insurance case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in the early 1920s. The Court’s decision, handed down on June 15, 1923, greatly limited the liability of insurance companies on old buildings. It also became known as the “leading case” in Canadian insurance valuation cases.

Built in 1910, the 22-room hotel at Colonsay was sold two years later to John Daley for $20,000. In 1912, even though Colonsay had a population of only 150 people, optimism ran high. At that time, the bars were open, and the sale of liquor was lucrative for the hotel business.

With the advent of Prohibition in 1915, the value of the Colonsay Hotel, as with all Saskatchewan hotels, plummeted dramatically. In 1917, Daley was forced to turn the hotel was over to – ironically – the Saskatchewan Brewing Company to which Daley owed $3,300.

In February 1920, Peter and Rosalina Pura, in partnership with John Lashkewicz, formed the Colonsay Hotel Company and bought the village’s hotel from the brewing company for $3,950. The Puras decided to operate a movie theatre in the hotel and had a $400 addition built. They took out three insurance policies totalling $14,500 – one with the Canadian National Fire Insurance Company for $6,500 on the building and contents; one with the Union Insurance Society of Canton, Limited for $4,000 on the buildings and furniture; and one with the British Crown Assurance Corporation, Limited for $4,000 on the building and contents.

Lashkewicz sold the Puras his half interest in the hotel property on September 20, 1920. Three weeks later, on October 2, 1920, the hotel was destroyed by fire. What resulted, according to newspaper reports, was a lengthy court battle between the hotel owners and the insurance companies. 

Courts Hear Insurance Case

Leader-Post, June 16, 1923

The Puras had insured the hotel at a value that they believed to be the replacement value of the building -- $14,500. After the fire, however, the three insurance companies offered to indemnify the Colonsay Hotel Co. for only $5,100. The owners appealed and were awarded $13,500 by the Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon.

The insurance companies turned to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, claiming that the original verdict should have been based on the actual value of the hotel at the time of the fire rather than on the cost of replacing the structure. The Court of Appeal maintained the original judge’s verdict and dismissed the appeal with costs.

The insurance companies then took the case to the Supreme Court of

Canada, which rendered its verdict on June 15, 1923. The five judges decided with the insurance companies, stating that the appeal should be allowed. They referred to the Saskatchewan Insurance Act, chapter 84, R.S.S. 1920, section 82 which stated that insurance companies were not liable for loss “beyond the actual value destroyed by fire.” The Supreme Court then ordered a new trial which took place in September 1923.  The insurance companies were eventually awarded $8,000.

The Leading Case in Canada

 

Star-Phoenix, Sept. 22, 1923

According to Marvin G. Baer in his article on insurance law published in the Ottawa Law Review (Winter 1976), “Canadian National Fire Insurance Co. v. Colonsay Hotel Co.” became “the leading case” in Canada for determining actual cash value in property insurance. Baer notes, however, that “Canadian courts have been reluctant to be tied down to any particular test” for valuation. The courts have since used some combination of replacement value less depreciation or market value.

The unique factor in the Colonsay Hotel case, Baer asserts, was the fact that the building’s depreciation in value came about not by physical deterioration, but by “obsolescence caused by external factors.” The external factor in this case was, of course, the closure of the bars. The value of a large hotel in a small town following Prohibition “is an obvious example of the kind of obsolescence which should be considered” when assessing its actual cash value.

 

After the ashes settled, a new, smaller hotel was built in Colonsay which still stands today. It is now called Kobis Bar and Grill.

The Colonsay Hotel, April 2006. Joan Champ photo

©Joan Champ, 2019

The First Steak Pit in Saskatchewan: Maryfield’s Arlington Hotel

Maryfield's Arlington Hotel, September 2012. Source

In 1976, Reg and Louise Dlouhy, along with Louise’s brother Ivan Findlay, bought the Arlington Hotel in Maryfield. One year later, they opened what is reported to be the first steak pit in Saskatchewan -- some say the first in Canada. Whatever the case, the steak pit proved to be a major attraction for Maryfield, which is located between Moosomin and the Manitoba border in the southeastern part of the province.

The Dlouhys had spent many years on the road, touring with the Regina-based band, Gene Dlouhy and His Swingin’ Canadians. Click here to hear the band's song, Drinking Wine,released in 1964.Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, Reg played saxophone with his brother Gene, who played trumpet. In 1970, the band moved to Calgary. They were in the process of moving to Las Vegas when Reg suffered a heart attack. Since Louise was from Maryfield, the couple decided to move there with their three children and get into the hotel business. 

Bartender at the Arlington Hotel, Maryfield, July 18, 1978. Regina Leader-Post.

“I think it was the travelling we did, and our association with supper clubs that gave us the necessary insight into the business,” Reg explained to the Regina Leader-Post in July 1978. “We have seen some beautiful places, and some that weren’t so nice. And we have taken the best of all of them and tried to mold it into our own district.” That same month, the Dlouhys served their 5,000^th steak in the eight months since they opened the steak pit.

Louise Dlouhy watching a customer grill his steaks. Regina Leader-Post, July 18, 1978.

The Dlouhys bought their beef from the Co-op in Brandon, Manitoba. “We never freeze the steaks – well, they aren’t around long enough to be frozen,” Reg told the newspaper. Customers could pick and cook their own steaks on a natural gas grill. The only food that came out of the kitchen was salad, a potato, and bread to accompany the steak.

History of the Arlington Hotel

The Arlington Hotel at Maryfield, c1912.  Source

Built in 1906, the three-story Arlington Hotel on the corner of Main Street and Assiniboine Avenue in Maryfield, Saskatchewan, featured an attractive front porch and second-floor balcony. The hotel had a ballroom, a dining room, and – of course – a bar.

Oluf Olson and his wife Dolly did their best to make their hotel guests comfortable. The bar in particular was very hospitable. In 1910, Olson was fined $50 plus court costs for keeping the bar open after hours. The Canada census shows that, in 1911, the hotel was a thriving business. In addition to the Olson family, the hotel had 18 registered “lodgers,” four chambermaids, two Scottish porters, two telephone operators, an Irish bartender, and a Chinese cook all residing within its walls.

When Prohibition began on July 1, 1915, Maryfield’s Arlington Hotel managed to stay open for business under the ownership of James Anderson. All the beautiful fixtures in the barroom – the gleaming brass and the long, polished wood bar, were removed and replaced by a pool room. Operating a hotel during Prohibition had its challenges. Without bars, hotel values plummeted.. In 1919, John Dodds purchased the Arlington Hotel and under his watch, the thirsty traveller was able to satisfy his wants. The town’s local history reports, “Mr. Dodds … was caught on at least two occasions by a [provincial] liquor inspector and paid the appropriate fines for his indiscretion.”

John James (J. J.) Harris and his wife Florence owned and operated the Arlington Hotel from 1922 to 1944. In 1935, when the Saskatchewan government finally permitted the sale of beer by the glass, Harris applied for a liquor license. A “local option vote” was held in Maryfield and the vote passed by a margin of only six votes – 79 to 73. The Arlington Hotel was able to serve beer once again.

Fire Destroys the Hotel 

 

One evening in late February 1945, Falmer and Louise Skallerup were preparing dinner for the Arlington’s guests. They had purchased the hotel in 1944 and were run off their feet. It was the first day of the biggest men’s curling bonspiel that Maryfield had ever hosted, and the hotel was full. At about 4:30 p.m., a fire broke out in the kitchen. Thanks to Mrs. Skallerup, all the hotel occupants were alerted and got out of the building safely – just as the fire swept up the stairwell, engulfing the entire building in flames. Firemen from Moosomin, 30 miles away, raced their pumper truck to Maryfield where townspeople had formed a bucket brigade to try and save the hotel. By the time the firemen arrived, the flames had destroyed the hotel and were threatening nearby buildings. Despite the disaster, the men’s bonspiel went ahead, with the curlers accommodated in a temporary dormitory set up at the Maryfield auditorium.

 Out of the Ashes, Into a Steak Pit

The Arlington Hotel was rebuilt a year after the fire and still stands in Maryfield today. When the Dlouys bought it, they completely remodeled the building, reducing the number of guest rooms from thirteen to nine in order to accommodate their family of five.

 

Maryfield's Arlington Hotel, 2009. Google Maps

Today, Chilly's Pub & Steak Pit in the Arlington Hotel still features cook-your-own steaks accompanied by salad, garlic bread and baked potato. Apparently, the chicken wings and ribs are also very good.

 

© Joan Champ, 2018. 

D.E.F. Hotels

Davidson

 

1907. Source

Delisle

 

Source

The Empire Hotel was built on the corner of Railway and Main in 1908 by Andrew Lunn. It burned down in February 1927.

Dundurn

 

Source

 Source

The American Hotel was built in 1904. It's name was changed to the Commercial Hotel in 1910 by owner Edwin Morgan. Mr. Swan Olsen, a farmer, built the Wascana Hotel in 1909. Olsen sold the hotel to Bill Wilson, a Scotsman also known as "Whisky Bill," in 1913. Wilson and his wife Margaret ran the Wascana Hotel until 1951.

Earl Grey

 

Source

The Hotel Grey was built in 1906. It was destroyed by fire in 1924.

Elfros

1913. Source

 

Elstow

Source

Sam Vigeant built the hotel in Elstow in 1908. Sam and his wife Florence came west from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec in 1885.They operated the hotel with the help of their son, Louis, who married one of the hotel employees, Bertha Lean, in 1911. The hotel was destroyed by fire on February 12, 1917. while under the ownership of the George W. Dunn family. When the fire broke out, the proprietors' 9-month-old son Frederick Dunn was asleep on the second floor. Anthony Leier of Allan, who was in Elstow for a curling bonspiel,  attempted to rescue the baby, but was unsuccessful. The building collapsed, and both Leier and the child lost their lives." Source Source: Memories Forever: Elstow and District, 1900-1983, p.8.

 

Englefeld

 

Source

In 1909, Matthew and Gerry Herriges built the Englefeld Hotel, featuring a massive ornamental mirror in the tavern that had been shipped by train from Winnipeg. Tragedy struck in 1911 when diphtheria broke out in the hotel. Two of Matthew Herriges' children, Helen age 2 and Matthew Jr. age 11 died from the disease, as did a hotel employee, Maria Schmitz. Source: Fields of Prosperity: A History of Englefeld, 1903-1987.

 

Eyebrow

 

1913. Source

 

 

Fielding

 

Source

Built around 1910, the Fielding Hotel burned down in 1922, along with most of the buildings on the town's main street.

 

Francis

 

Francis Hotel under construction, 1907. Source

New Francis Hotel, 1907. Source

 

 

Frobisher

 

1910. Source

1911. Source

John Klaholz came to Canada from Germany in the late 1800s. He and his wife Feona moved to Frobisher in 1900 and built the Imperial Hotel in 1903. The Klaholz family operated the hotel into the 1930s.