Greenwood Ice & Coal Co. v. Georgia Home Insurance
Greenwood Ice & Coal Co. v. Georgia Home Insurance
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
On the testimony in this record, carefully considered as a whole, the jury, if the case had been submitted to them, could not possibly have reached any reasonable conclusion other than that Drennan was a .stockholder in the Greenwood Ice & Coal Company, and a director and the vice president thereof, at the
The action of Kimball in investigating the loss, and submitting the matter to appraisement, was no waiver' of the right of the appellee to deny liability. The policy provides that " no appraisal shall be construed, under any circumstances, as evidence of the validity.of said policy, or of the company’s liability thereon. ’ ’ And the agreement for appraisal in this case stipulates that " it is for the purpose bf ascertaining and fixing the amount of said loss and damage only . . . and shall not determine, waive or invalidate any other right of either party to said agreement; ” and Kimball expressly refers to this' reservation in his testimony. The case of Insurance Co. v. Matthews, 65 Miss., 301, is decisive of this point.
Nor can it be justly claimed that Kimball, for the company, waived the right of the company to deny liability on the ground that he was interested in the Greenwood Ice & Coal Company, as stockholder, director and vice president. The agreement, at page twenty-five of the record, is that " Kimball, on ascertaining certain facts, of which he was ignorant, wrote the Greenwood Ice & Coal Company the letter of March 6,” withdrawing from the agreement to appraise the property. Kimball states that Keesler gave him the list of stockholders and officers of the company the day after he signed the appraisement agreement. Keesler says he did not recollect whether it was ¡that day or not. Kimball testifies that the information on which he acted in writing the letter of March 6 was the knowledge obtained in Greenwood, but after he signed the agreement fbr appraisal, as to
We forbear a minute analysis of, or further comment on, the remarkable testimony in this record. It is enough to say that no verdict for plaintiff could have been allowed to stand, and the action of the court in granting the peremptory charge was eminently proper, and the judgment is
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Greenwood Ice & Coal Co. v. Georgia Home Insurance Co.
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- 7 cases
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- Syllabus
- 1. Fere Insubance. Agent. Antagonistic relations. Without ratification, an insurance company is not bound by a policy issued by its local agent to insure the property of a corporation in which he is a stockholder, director, and vice president. Insurance Co. v. Myers, 55 Miss., 479. 2. Same. Ratification. Investigating loss. In such case, the insurance company will not be held to have ratified the issuance of the policy merely because its adjuster, in ig-norance of the facts, investigated the loss, and agreed in writing- to^ have the amount thereof determined by appraisement, he, on learning the facts, having promptly withdrawn from the ag-reement. 3. Same. Agreement to appraise. Waiver. Such an ag-reement for appraisement will not estop the insurance company to deny all liability for the loss, where the agreement itself provides that the appraisement shall be only for the purpose of fixing the amount, and shall not waive any other rig-lit of either party.