from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
INSURABLE INTEREST. That right of property which may be the subject of an
insurance.
2. The policy of commerce, and the various complicated rights which
different persons may have in the same thing, require that not only those
who have an absolute property in ships or goods, but those also who, have a
qualified property in them, may be at liberty to insure them. For example,
when a ship is mortgaged, and the mortgage has become absolute, the owner of
the legal estate has an insurable interest, and the mortgagor, on account of
his equity, has also an insurable interest. 1 Burr. 489. See 20 Pick. 259; 1
Pet. 163.