Wish v. Maryland Casualty Co.
Wish v. Maryland Casualty Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is an action on a bond in which the plaintiff is the obligee, W. T. O’Brien, Jr. Co., a corporation, is principal, and the defendant is surety. The pertinent condition of the bond is that the plaintiff is indemnified against loss not exceeding $25,000 “on, account of the failure of W. T. O’Brien, Jr. Co., W. T. O’Brien, Pres. &
This action is brought to recover the sum of $103.26, the same being eighty per cent on six promissory notes, given in connection with the purchase of four automobiles from the O’Brien Motor Company, a corporation, and indorsed by the O’Brien Motor Company, J. A. MacRae, treasurer, and W. T. O’Brien, Jr., which notes were discounted by the plaintiff.
There was evidence that in June or July, 1925, the plaintiff applied to one Burnes, an insurance agent, for a bond to cover him against loss in his business of discounting notes; that at that time Joseph Rosen and W. T. O’Brien, Jr. were engaged in the business of selling automobiles, as copartners, under the firm name of Rosen & O’Brien; that after several conferences with the plaintiff and one Kolb, who represented the home office of the defendant, Burnes, with whom the plaintiff placed his insurance, issued a bond similar to the one in suit, which was executed naming the plaintiff as obligee, Rosen & O’Brien as principal, and the defendant as surety. In October, 1925, the business of Rosen &
In April, 1926, another corporation known as the O’Brien Motor Company was formed which was engaged in the business of selling automobiles in Cambridge, and in the conduct of its business it took the notes declared on in this action and they were discounted by the plaintiff. The plaintiff testified that after this new corporation was formed he told one Edson, an employee in Burnes’s office, that O’Brien was opening a branch office in Cambridge, and inquired whether notes of the O’Brien Motor Company taken from his office would be covered by the bond; and he was afterwards informed by Edson “that it was all right.” Edson testified that Sinclair, the assistant manager of the defendant’s bonding department, told him in substance that the bond would cover all notes accepted by the defendant at any of its places of business and discounted by the plaintiff. The defendant was not informed that the O’Brien Motor Company was a corporation separate and distinct from the corporation known as the W. T. O’Brien, Jr. Co., nor was an application ever made to the defendant for a bond covering notes accepted and discounted by the O’Brien Motor Company.
It was the practice that all notes discounted would be listed in schedules and submitted to the defendant, which signed the schedules accepting the notes covered by the bond. The notes in suit are listed in schedule Exhibit 3 of the record. At the close of the evidence the following issue was submitted to the jury: “When the schedule, Exhibit 3, was accepted by the defendant, was the defendant advised that the notes sued upon were not the notes of the W. T. O’Brien, Jr. Company?” The answer was in the affirmative, whereupon the judge directed a verdict for the defendant.
By the terms of the bond the defendant agreed to indemnify the plaintiff for loss on account of the failure of the
There is no evidence in the record to warrant the finding of the jury that, when the schedule was accepted by the defendant, the defendant was advised that the notes sued upon were not the notes of the W. T. O’Brien, Jr. Co. There was nothing in the schedule to charge the defendant with notice; nor was there anything in the schedule to show that any notes of the O’Brien Motor Company had been discounted except in the notes themselves, and there is no evidence that these notes were ever seen by the defendant. It could not have been found that the parties made a subsequent oral agreement providing for a change in the principal of the bond which was entered into by any authorized representative of the defendant.
In accordance with the terms of the report, judgment is to be entered for the defendant on the verdict.
So ordered. .
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Abraham Wish v. Maryland Casualty Company
- Status
- Published