South Bend Toy Manufacturing Co. v. Dakota Fire & Marine Insurance
South Bend Toy Manufacturing Co. v. Dakota Fire & Marine Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Action on an insurance policy. Complaint is in the usual form. The answer alleges, in substance. (1) That plaintiff did not at any time pay the premium to the de
Insurance Agency of Runk & Co. Insurance is wanted by
[The words “Ben Phelon” and “Western” were written in lead pencil. ]
“General Bemarks: No painting or varnishing in the main building. This is done in brick building separate from main building. Good fire protection. Hand grenades, hose, hydrants, etc. Watchman kept. Bisk is kept very clean. All waste disposed of daily. Bate is board. , Please send policy at once and oblige. Bunk & Co.
“General information: Is there any fact connected with this risk or neighborhood affecting the moral hazard? No. What is the present cash value of the property? 20 to 25,000. Is it mortgaged or otherwise encumbered? No. What additional insurance? f value. Are the policies concurrent? Yes. Does the insured keep books of account? Yes, Companies on: Miss. Valley; Ills. Mut’l; Indiana; Citizens; Ohio Valley; Mt. City; Boyal; Pierre; Germ. Am.; Hope; Beliance, Capital; Ins. Co. Dak.; Vanderbilt,” etc.
That upon this application Ben Phelon issued the policy in suit, and forwarded it to Bunk & Co. at Newport, who forwarded it to Henderson Bros, at South Bend, who delivered it to plaintiff, and collected the premium, and forwarded it to Bunk & Co., less commissions, and they, Bunk & Co., credited it to Ben Phelon, with whom they had an account.
On the trial, two material facts stated in the application, and claimed by defendant as warranties, were shown to be untrue,
On the trial, a map of the premises was offered in evidence,
1. The first alleged error necessary to be considered is the refusal of the court to admit in evidence the map of the premises insured. The only evidence introduced in regard to this map was that of Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Silsby. Mrs. Henderson says, (speaking of the map:) “I think it is Mr. Jacob Henderson’s printing; and I now attach the map to my deposition, and mark it ‘ Exhibit A. ’ ” Mr. Silsby says: ‘ T received the map marked ‘Exhibit A’ by mail with the daily report sent in by our agent, Hen Phelon, at New Orleans, La., when he first reported to us that he had issued the policy in suit on this property.” The objection made to its introduction was that it was ‘ ‘irrelevant and immaterial, ” and it is contended by appellant that, even admitting that it was not sufficiently identified, the court should not have excluded it under that objection. So far as is disclosed by the record, the evidence was irrelevant and immaterial, and we are of the opinion that the map was properly excluded. There was no issue that it tended to prove.
2. The evidence relative to the application was, in substance, that it was made out and forwarded to Phelon by Runk & Co.; and after it had been examined by Phelon, and the policy issued upon it, it was then forwarded to the home office of the defendant, at Mitchell, Dak. Appellant contends that Henderson Bros, and Runk & Co. were the agents of the plaintiff, and that Runk & Co. were authorized to make out and forward this application, and that the plaintiff is chargeable with the truth of the representations therein contained, which by.the stipulations in the contract'became warranties on the part of the plaintiff; and, two material facts being untrue, the policy is rendered void. And in support of this proposition it refers us to the clause in the policy providing that all persons other than the insured and the authorized agents of defendant who might procure the policy are to be deemed and taken to be the agents of the insured. This stipulation in the policy cannot change the facts as they actually existed at the time the policy was issued, or make the acts of persons binding upon the insured, unless such persons were in fact agents of the insured at the time the policy was procured, without proof that the stipulation in the policy was known to the plaintiff at the time the policy was applied for. No evidence of the existence of such actual knowledge on the part of the plaintiff was given; and the evidence discloses the fact that the policy in controversy was the first ever issued by defendant to the plaintiff, and the first, in fact, ever issued to any person in South Bend; hence it cannot be claimed that any presumption arises that the plaintiff had such knowledge» The policy itself does not contain the warranty relied on, nor is a copy of the application forwarded to .Phelon by Runk & Co. attached to it; and therefore the plaintiff, so far as the evidence discloses, had no knowledge of the existence of the application made by Runk & Co. prior to the loss. Plaintiff’s acceptance of the policy, therefore, if held to make this clause in the policy obligatory upon the plaintiff in any event, could not in justice be held to be binding
In Kausal v. Association, 31 Minn. 17, 16 N. W. Rep. 430, the court says: “To be efficacious, such notice should be given before the negotiations are completed. The application precedes the policy, and the assured cannot be presumed to know that any such provision will be inserted in the latter. To hold that by a stipulation unknown to the assuréd at the time he made the application, and when he relied upon the fact that the agent was acting for the company, he could be held responsible for the mistake of such agent, would be to impose burdens upon the assured he never assumed.” And in Insurance Co. Ives, 56 Ill. 402, the court says: “There is no magic power residing in the words of that stipulation to trainsmute the real into the unreal. A device of mere words.cannot, in a case like this,, be imposed upon the view of a court of justice in place of an actuality of fact, and make this company and its agents the agents of the appellees, and their doings the doings of the appellees.” Gans v. Insurance Co., 43 Wis. 108; Boethcher v. Insurance Co., 47 Iowa, 253; Insurance Co. v. Myers, 55 Miss. 479; Ellenberger v. Insurance Co., 80 Pa. St. 464; Morrison v. Insurance Co., 69 Tex. 353, 6 S. W. Rep. 605; Sullivan v. Insurance Co., 34 Kan. 170, 8 Pac. Rep. 112; Patridge v. Insurance Co., 17 Hun. 95; Insurance Co. v. Crutchfield, 108 Ind. 518, 9 N. E. Rep. 458. In opposition to the views here expressed, and sustained by the above authorities and many others not cited, are the decisions of the courts of several states, entitled to great consideration. Rohrback v. Insurance Co., 62 N. Y. 47; Alexander v. Same, 66 N. Y. 464; Insurance Co. v. Stevens, 9 Allen, 332; Wood v. Insurance Co., 126 Mass. 316. Without at this time 'determining the effect of the stipulation under consideration in the policy further than in holding that such stipulation was not binding upon plaintiff prior to the acceptance of the policy, we shall proceed to discuss the questions relating to the withdrawal of the application from the jury without regard to this
It is clear that Runk & Go. can in no sense be deemed the agents of plaintiff. They were insurance agents representing certain insurance companies, and applications were made to them by Henderson Bros., as the agents of such companies; and, whatever relation Henderson Bros, may have sustained to the plaintiff, it is certain under the evidence that Runk & Co. did not sustain the relation of agents of the plaintiff in this transaction, and had no authority to bind the plaintiff by any application they might make to Phelon for a policy. The case of Insurance Co. v. Ives, 56 Ill. 402, before cited, being quite analogous to the case at bar, we feel justified in quoting more at large from the opinion of the court in that case. In that case one Holmes, a local insurance agent, had placed a certain amount of insurance on the property of Ives & Co. in a company represented by him, and, being applied to for additional insurance on the property, he wrote to the agent of the Commercial Insurance Company for this additional insurance, obtained it upon an application signed by himself in the name of Ives & Co., delivered the policy to them, and collected the premium, which he forwarded to the agent of the insurance company. There were, as in the case at bar, certain stipulations in the application held to be warranties, and the question was whether or not he was the agent of Ives & Co., and whether or not the warranty in the application was binding upon Ives & Co. The policy contained a stipulation making all persons procuring the policy agents of the insured, as shown by the portions of the opinion before quoted.
The court, in its opinion, says: “Had Holmes really been employed by the assured as their agent to get these premises insured for them, we do not say that he would not have had an implied authority to sign their names to the customary appli
3. This brings us to the last question presented, and that is, did the court properly instruct the jury upon the question submitted to it, namely, the payment of the premium? That the premium was paid by plaintiff to Henderson Bros., and by them remitted to Runk & Co., from whom they received the policy, less their commission of 15 per cent., is not disputed. But it is contended by the appellant that Runk & Co. were the agents of plaintiff, and that, as they did not, as a matter of fact, pay it over to Phelon, but only credited him with it, it never was paid to defendant, and the policy is for that reason invaiid. We cannot assent to this proposition. As before stated, the evidence fails to show that Runk & Co. were the agents of plaintiff, — or at least a jury was justified in so find
Reference
- Full Case Name
- South Bend Toy Manufacturing Co. v. Dakota Fire & Marine Insurance Co.
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- 5 cases
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- Syllabus
- 1. A stipulation in an insurance policy that any person other than the insured or the duly authorized agent of the company who may have procured the insurance to be taken shall be deemed the ag’ent of the insured, will not be binding upon the insured as to any act prior to the delivery of the policy, unless notice has been given the insured before the negotiations for the policy are completed that such a stipulation will be inserted therein. 2. When the plaintiff — a corporation doing business at South Bend, Ind.,— is notified by H. Bros., local insurance agents of that city, Who have attended to the business of placing insurance for the plaintiff, that a policy is about to expire, and the insured consents to a renewal of the policy, the plaintiff does not thereby make H. Bros, its agents to obtain for it an insurance policy, where they, instead of placing the insurance in some company represented by them, apply to a firm of insurance agents in another state for such insurance. 3.- R. & Co., insurance agents at Newport, .Ky., were applied to by H. Bros., insurance agents at South Bend, Ind., for a policy on the property of the plaintiff, and the last name firm, having no company represented by them in which to place the insurance, applied to P., general agent of the defendant at New Orleans, for a policy, and forwarded to him a written application, signed by them in their firm name of R. & Co., in which are contained certain representations which by the terms of the policy, are made warranties, and which representations were untrue as to two material facts therein stated. Held, that R. & Co. were not the agent of plaintiff in procuring said policy, and that they were not authorized to make an application in writing binding the plaintiff to the truth of such representations. 4. P., as the general agent of the defendant, issued to the plaintiff a policy upon the application of R. & Co., and signed by them in their firm name, without requiring any written application signed by the plaintiff-or its authorized ag’ent. Held, that defendant was bound by such policy, although the representations in the application were not binding upon the plaintiff. 5. When an application is signed by R. & Co., insurance agents, in their firm name, the application is what it purports to be, — the application of R. & Co.; and, as they did not assume to be the agents of plaintiff in making the application, P., the general agent of the company, had no right to presume they were acting as agents of the plaintiff in making such application, or authorized by it to make an application binding upon the plaintiff, and a policy issued by him will be binding upon the defendant, and the representations in the application will be disregarded. 6. A map of the premises insured, offered in evidence, proven to have been the printing of H. Bros., insurance agents at South Bend, Ind., and received by the secretary of defendant company at Mitchell, Dak., with the application for insurance from P., its New Orleans agent, was properly excluded by the court. 7. H. Bros., insurance agents, who had been placing insurance for the plaintiff, applied to R. & Co., insurance agents in another state, for a policy for plaintiff, and the last named firm, having no company represented by them willing to take the insurance, applied to P., a general agent of the defendant at New Orleans, who issued the policy in controversy in this action, forwarded it to R. & Co., who forwarded it to H. Bros., who delivered the policy to plaintiff, collected the premium, and after deducting their commission, remitted balance to R. & Co.,'who credited it to P., with whom that firm interchanged insurance business, and with whom they hadan open account. Held, that P., by forwarding the policy, with authorty to collect premium, to R. & Co., made R. & Co. the agents of the defendant for 'that purpose, and that the premium was in effect paid to the company under the terms of the policy. (Syllabus by the Court.