Gargano v. Home Insurance
Gargano v. Home Insurance
Opinion of the Court
By the instant action, plaintiffs seek to recover under a policy of so-called “cargo” insurance issued by defendant company on June 6,1944, whereby the latter agreed to insure plaintiffs up to $5,000 for loss of property upon any one automobile, truck, trailer, or vehicle, or any one semitrailer operated by plaintiffs, whether owned, leased or rented by them, against loss resulting from plaintiffs’ liability to others for loss or damage to general merchandise caused by various perils enumerated in the policy, including collision or overturning of said vehicles, while such goods and merchandise were in the custody and control of plaintiffs and in due course of transit.
The loss for which plaintiffs seek recovery arose from an accident occurring on August 18, 1944, in Lake County, California, on the road between Kelseyville and Yuba City, when a tractor and a semitrailer owned by one E. W. Brown and leased from him by plaintiffs under an oral agreement, went out of control and overturned on a curve, thereby damaging
Following the accident, plaintiffs paid the shipper for the loss of the pears and made claim therefor against defendant insurer under the policy of cargo insurance heretofore mentioned. Defendant denied liability on the sole ground that plaintiffs had breached the insurance contract and forfeited their right to recover thereunder, for the reason that they had agreed with B. W. Brown to make the protection afforded by such policy available to him, thus impairing defendant’s right of subrogation against said E. W. Brown.
The trial court found with respect to this issue as follows: “It is true that three or four weeks before said accident and damage to said pears which occurred on August 18th, 1944, the plaintiffs and B. W. Brown made, executed and entered into an oral agreement wherein and whereby the plaintiffs promised and agreed to make available to the said B. W. Brown the protection, benefits and insurance coverage afforded by said policy of liability insurance No. TM 330197 issued by The Home Insurance Company on or about June 6, 1944. It is further true that as part of said agreement, said B. W. Brown promised to pay to plaintiffs the premiums required for said policy of insurance, in consideration of the plaintiffs’ promise to make the protection, benefits and insurance coverage of said policy available to said B. W. Brown.
“It is true that said B. W. Brown paid to the plaintiffs the said premiums required by the terms of said policy of insurance and that the plaintiffs received the same by deducting the amount of such premiums, as such, from the sums paid by plaintiffs to the said B. W. Brown for the use of his tractor and semi-trailer. ’ ’
This appeal is prosecuted from the judgment which followed, it being urged that there is no evidence that the benefits of the insurance policy were conferred upon B. W. Brown by agreement, express or implied, and there is “no evidence to support a finding that such breach had occurred or that plaintiffs had thereby forfeited their right to recover.”
Appellant Ted Gargano testified that three or four weeks prior to August 18, 1944, he met Mr. Brown in Los Angeles, at which time Mr. Brown said he had heard that appellant had “this pear haul or pear" contract” in Lake County. “He
Obviously, there is nothing in the testimony of appellant Ted Gargano, who was the only witness produced at the trial herein, tending to establish that appellants agreed with E. W. Brown that the latter should be protected by the policy of cargo insurance issued by respondent.
In this connection, respondent asserts that “Although it is true that the appellant Ted Gargano testified that in his conversation with E. W. Brown he told the latter that the cargo insurance was for the protection of appellants and the owners of the cargo, the Court did not find that this was the agreement between the parties. The Court had the following evidence before it that such was not the agreement. The affidavit of the appellant Ted Gargano, admitted in evidence as Defendant’s Exhibit ‘A,’ makes no mention that the cargo in
The affidavit referred to was made by appellant Ted Gargano shortly after the accident occurred and states: “We paid Mr. Brown a straight fee of ten (10^) cents per box of pears hauled for the rental of this equipment. . . . From this ten (10^) cents per box fee, I deducted the wages and fuel costs which were charged back to Mr. Brown, and I also deducted the premiums on the cargo insurance carried on this equipment. This is the arrangement we had with Mr. Brown and we have made no agreement with him and have said nothing to change this arrangement. I further certify I have done nothing to prejudice, waive, or interfere with any rights of subrogation the company may have as a result of this loss. Dated November 22, 1944.”
No inconsistency exists between this affidavit and the direct testimony of appellant Ted Gargano hereinbefore recited. Neither supports the trial court’s finding that appellants and Brown “entered into an oral agreement wherein and whereby the plaintiffs promised and agreed to make available to the said E. W. Brown the protection, benefits and insurance coverage afforded by said policy of liability insurance” issued by respondent. The record discloses no evidence to support a finding that appellants breached the contract of insurance or forfeited their right to recover thereunder.
For the reasons stated, the judgment is reversed.
Doran, J., and White, J.. concurred.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.