Swiller v. Home Insurance
Swiller v. Home Insurance
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court ivas delivered by
The suit is to recover loss by fire which plaintiffs claimed to be covered by a policy issued by the defendant company.
On February 14th, about three p. si., Fisher and. Gottlieb delivered a deed conveying the property to the two Swillers, the' present plaintiffs, who also received the written policy, and about four p. m., of the same day, they gave it to their insurance broker, named Levine, with directions to have the ownership transferred to their names. Levine was not the agent of the company. That agent was a corporation named Meilson T. Parker, Inc. Levine did not go to Parker for an endorsement of change of interest until the next morning when the endorsement was made. In the meantime, the fire had occurred. The stipulation of facts shows that when Levine presented the policy for endorsement of new ownership, neither Parker, Inc., nor the compány knew of the fire having taken place, and Levine did not inform Parker of it.
On this state of facts' the trial judge, sitting without jury, held that, although in his estimation the policy was not originally enforceable because Fisher had no interest in the property at the time of its issue, or thereafter, yet plaintiffs were entitled to recover, on the theory, as he stated it, that the question was not one of waiver of the invaliditj of the original policy, but of practically new insurance; and that instead of writing a new policy for the remaining portion of the policy (term?) the company extended the old insurance to the new owners.
We think that this was error. It may be conceded that by endorsing the new ownership on a policy which the company could have voided for misstatement of original ownership, or for transfer of ownership to the Swillers without such endorsement, the company entered’ into a fresh contract with said new owners’to insure them for the remainder of the term, and that the premium originally paid was a valid consideration therefor. But when did the remainder of the term begin ? In order to uphold the decision below, it is necessary to say that it began when the deed to the Swillers was delivered. Doubtless, the company could have so agreed, but
The ease is not within-the rule in Hallock v. Insurance Company, 26 N. J. L. 268; 27 Id. 645, for, in that case, the application was made for insurance and premium tendered to the agent before the fire occurred, for a term to begin at the date of the application, and the policy was so written. There was, consequently, in that case, no room for argument as to what the company agreed to, and the main question was whether' it was relieved from the agreement because the fire had occurred without its knowledge before it had formally entered into it.
One of the defences set up in the pleadings, and not contradicted as to the facts, was that the policy contained a provision that unless otherwise provided by agreement endorsed thereon or added thereto, it should be void if any change, other than by the death of the insured, take place in the interest, title or possession of the subject of insurance, &e., and that by the conveyance to the Swillers such change took place and vitiated the policy. On the trial defendant requested the court to find that the foregoing clause was a warranty, of which there had been a broach by the conveyance to the Swillers -which had not been waived by an endorsement on the policy or addition thereto; and further, that the endorsement in question, placed on the policy after the fire, did not constitute such waiver because the company had no knowledge or notice of such fire. These requests were either overruled
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I am unable to agree with the majority of the court that the refusal of the trial court to find as requested, that the endorsement entered on the policy on February 15th, 1913, which reads as follows: “Interest in this policy is.hereby vested in Max and Abe Swiller, trading under the name of Swiller Bros, as owner instead of as heretofore. Loss, if any, first payable as before. Second mortgagee eliminated,” was not a waiver of previous breaches of warranty as to ownership-, called to the attention of the court, because the company had no notice of the facts alleged to avoid the insurance and forfeit the policy, was erroneous.
This request is based upon the assumption that the policy, before it was assigned to the plaintiffs and the endorsement made thereon, was absolutely void, because when it was issued to the previous owners, Max Herman and Wolfe Eisher, the latter had conveyed his undivided one-half interest to Nathan Gottlieb. The policy of insurance is not printed in the record, nor was it submitted to the court, the case being tried and determined upon facts stipulated, so we have no knowledge of the terms of the policy, relating to the character of the in
Hone of the conditions contained in the policy upon which the breaches of warranty appearing in the requests to charge or find appear in this record, but, assuming that the policy contained these warranties, there was no breach, so far as the interest of Herman is concerned, because his respective interest wa« always in existence, and continued to be until he conveyed the property and handed over the policy to the new owner, for “respective interests”, means such interests as each of the insured had. It is not a case where tenants in common are jointly insured where conveyance by one would avoid the policy, biit an insurance of the respective interests of each as such interest might appear, and therefore there was no breach of warranty, so far as Herman was concerned, which called for a compliance with the sixth request that the endorsement did not constitute a waiver of the breaches of warranties, because one of the parties held a valid insurance to the extent of his interest. The effect of the new contract created by the endorsement on the policy, after the conveyance by Herman and after the loss, is not raised by any request to charge and is not to be considered because all of the
■ If it is a new contract based upon all the terms and conditions of the policy, as seems to be the settled law, it may be that the insurance company, by the substitution of a new owner for the old one, makes the policy good to the new owner for the entire period, which would be nothing more than an agreement to insure the new owner for the entire period covered by the policy, or at least from the time it was assigned to him, and that the eompanj'- has a right to antedate its policy was settled in Hallock v. Insurance Company, supra. But no such question is raised in this case, for all of the requests,' the refusal to comply with which is the only ground of error alleged, are based upon the claim that the policy being originally void, the endorsement'to the new owner was not a waiver of alleged breaches, because the policy itself was void, and if, as I think, the policy was not void because it was an insurance of respective interests, one of which was insurable, then the requests were based upon a false assumption of law and were properly refused.
The judgment should be affirmed.
For mffirmcm.ce—Ti-ie Chancellor, Bergen, JIinturn, Kalisoi-i, White, Williams, JJ. 6.
For reversal—The Chibe Justice, Swayzé, Trenciiard, Parker, Heppenheimer, Taylor, Gardner, JJ. 7.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MAX AND ABE SWILLER, PARTNERS, ETC. v. HOME INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK
- Status
- Published