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Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Edition (1856)

ADJUSTMENT, maritime law. The adjustment of a loss is the settling and
ascertaining the amount of the indemnity which the insured after all proper
allowances and deductions have been made, is entitled to receive, and the
proportion of this, which each underwriter is liable to pay, under the
policy Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 14, p. 617 or it is a written admission of the
amounts of the loss as settled between the parties to a policy of insurance.
3 Stark. Ev. 1167, 8.
2. In adjusting a loss, the first thing to be considered is, how the
quantity of damages for which the underwriters are liable, shall be
ascertained. When a loss is a total loss, and the insured decides to
abandon, he must give notice of this to the underwriters iii a reasonable
time, otherwise he will waive his right to abandon, and must be content to
claim only for a partial loss. Marsh. Ins. B.1, c.3, s.2; 15 East, 559;
1 T. R. 608; 9 East, 283; 13 East 304; 6 Taunt. 383. When the loss is
admitted to be total, and the policy is a valued one, the insured is
entitled to receive the whole sum insured, subject to such deductions as may
have been agreed by the policy to be made in case of loss.
3. The quantity of damages being known, the next point to be settled,
is, by what rule this shall be estimated. The price of a thing does not
afford a just criterion to ascertain its true value. It may have been bought
very dear or very cheap. The circumstances of time and place cause a
continual variation in the price of things. For this reason, in cases of
general average, the things saved contribute not according to prune cost,
but according to the price for which they may be sold at the time of
settling the average. Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 14, s. 2, p. 621; Laws of
Wisbury,
art. 20 Laws of Oleron, art. 8 this Dict. tit. Price. And see 4 Dall. 430; 1
Caines' R. 80; 2 S. & R. 229 2 S.& R. 257, 258.
4. An adjustment being endorsed on the policy, and signed by the
underwriters, with the promise to pay in a given time, is prima facie
evidence against them, and amounts to an admission of all the facts
necessary to be proved by the insured to entitle him to recover in an action
on the policy. It is like a note of hand, and being proved, the insured has
no occasion to go into proof of any other circumstances. Marsh. Ins. B. 1,
c. 14, s. 3, p. 632; 3 Stark. Ev. 1167, 8 Park. ch. 4; Wesk. Ins, 8; Beaw.
Lex. Mer. 310; Com. Dig. Merchant, E 9; Abbott on Shipp. 346 to 348. See
Damages.