him under the contract of sale at the time of the fire.
Following the date of the fire, the building was unoccupied. It appears that it was boarded up by a representative of either USF&G or the appraisal company, but the boards were removed by vandals who did considerable damage to the property. In his deposition, Frank White stated that he was aware that the boards had been removed and that the building was being vandalized, but he did nothing to prevent it. As a result of the vandalism the city of Chicago instituted an action for demolition. The plaintiffs were made parties and appeared in court on one occasion through their attorney, Herbert Wisch. This was in October, 1967. Neither the plaintiffs nor their attorney appeared thereafter, andon October 27, 1967, the court entered an order of demolition. The building was demolished on November 29, 1967. The city also brought an action against Goran for foreclosure of a demolition lien in the amount of $1185, and Goran paid this sum in order to have the lien released.
On April 9, 1968, the plaintiffs filed a complaint against USF&G in which they alleged in essence that USF&G had breached the insurance contract by failing to pay them the $7036.40 claimed in the proofs of loss and that as a result of the breach they had been unable to repair their building, causing it to be demolished by the city. They claimed $13,000 as damages, the amount of the policy. USF&G answered that it had discharged its obligations