Abelsen v. Prothero

238 P.2d 397, 39 Wash. 2d 737, 1951 Wash. LEXIS 349
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1951
DocketNo. 31752
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 238 P.2d 397 (Abelsen v. Prothero) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abelsen v. Prothero, 238 P.2d 397, 39 Wash. 2d 737, 1951 Wash. LEXIS 349 (Wash. 1951).

Opinion

Mallery, J.

The Pacific Exploration Company, Inc., desired to engage in a fishing venture for deep-sea crabs and halibut in Bering Sea and North Pacific waters. It entered into a ninety-day time charter for the catch and services of the oil screw “Foremost,” whose home port was Seattle. The owners of the vessel were to furnish a crew of six fishermen and all supplies, except certain specified gear, which the company would provide. The venture was an experiment, it not being known what catch to expect.

Accordingly, the company guaranteed the sum of $27,500 for the ninety-day fishing operation in case the catch, at the agreed prices, fell below that amount. It was further agreed, if the vessel broke down so that it was unable to fish for more than forty-eight hours, that, thereafter, the guarantee would be reduced at the rate of $275 per day for the duration of the breakdown. Thus, the company assumed the risk as to the catch, and the owners of the vessel the risk of the loss of charter hire due to breakdown for over forty-eight hours.

In fulfillment of the charter, the owners of the vessel entered into contracts of employment with a crew of six fishermen. The contracts provided that the crew had read the charter, and that each would be guaranteed wages of twenty-five hundred dollars for the operation, except that in the event of a breakdown of the vessel they would receive no wages for any period for which the owners would not be [739]*739paid under the charter. Thus, the owners passed on to the crew their wage risk from a breakdown of over forty-eight hours. They then only had the risk of operating costs and the loss of their hire or profit for the use of the vessel for any unpaid period.

The owners desired to insure against their risk. They proposed that the crew join them in securing and paying for an insurance policy, which would insure the crew against their wage risk also. It was not known, at least to the crew, whether or not insurance coverage could be obtained for their risk. Accordingly, the members of the crew signed the following contract:

“Providing that insurance is obtainable, the undersigned members of the crew of the M/V Foremost, agree to pay their share of the premium (Amounting to about $75.00) for insurance to cover the loss of the charter money guaranteed under the charter of the M/V Foremost to the Pacific Exploration Co.

“This insurance to be issued under the American Hulls (Pacific) Deductible Average insurance form.”

It was agreed that the owners would deduct the insurance premiums for the crew’s coverage, if it was secured, from their last pay check.

The owners applied for and secured insurance in their name for both risks, that is, for the whole of the charter hire, which would be lost in case of a breakdown. They advanced the total premium on the policy of insurance. The rights of the owners and the crew were, thereupon, fixed. Thus, if the contingency insured against did not occur, the owners, nevertheless, by virtue of their contract relating to insurance with the crew, could invoke the liability for the crew’s share of the insurance premium by withholding it from the last pay checks. In such an event, the interest of the owners in doing so is clear, since the premium itself is a loss if, at the end of the period of the policy, the contingency insured against has not occurred.

The vessel left Seattle in March and commenced fishing April 1, 1948. On May 27,1948, the vessel had a breakdown, due to engine trouble. It returned the gear to the mother ship and started for Seattle for repairs. The insurance [740]*740company diverted it to Kodiak, Alaska, for the repairs which were completed on July 13, 1948, at which time the charter had expired.

The owners made a claim on the insurance company. They were paid for sums lost under the charter, by reason of the breakdown, in the amount of $9,075.

The owners did not tell the crew they had succeeded in obtaining the insurance coverage contemplated, did not deduct the crew’s share of the premium from their pay checks, after the breakdown or at all, and made no accounting to the crew with regard to the recovery they had received from the insurance company.

Later, and in the fall, a member of the crew looked into the matter of the insurance. He learned the name of the insurance company, called upon it and found out about the issuance of the policy and the payment of the claim. He and three other members of the crew of six brought this action a gainst the owners for their share of the recovery had under the policy. The trial court deducted their share of the premium, and rendered judgment for the plaintiffs for the balance of their shares of the recovery. The defendant owners appeal. ■

We affirm the judgment of the 'trial court, upon the basis of the existence of a resulting trust arising out of the contract between the parties relating to the insurance policy. In re Peterson’s Estate, 12 Wn. (2d) 686, 123 P. (2d) 733; 2 Restatement of the Law of Trusts, 1244.

Appellants, themselves, state precisely the nature of the resulting trust in their brief as follows:

“Appellants contend that respondent’s complaint states a cause of action in equity. Respondents sought to recover a portion of the insurance proceeds received by appellants as trustees of a resulting trust on an agreement that respondents would pay such share of the premium for charter hire insurance as would cover an amount of charter hire equivalent to respondents’ possible loss of earnings in case of mechanical break-down of the boat.”

Hereafter, the contract between the appellants and the Pacific Exploration Company, Inc., will be referred to as the [741]*741charter; the contract between the appellants and the insurance company as the policy; the original contract of employment between the parties as the contract of employment; and the subsequent contract between the parties relating to insurance as the insurance agreement.

Appellants contend that respondents breached the insurance agreement, because they never offered to pay their share of insurance premiums. The total premium advanced by the appellants was $847.91, of which the crew, by the terms of the insurance agreement, obligated themselves to pay $75 each or $525 in all. The trial court found, and the record supports the finding, that the parties agreed that respondents’ premium contributions were to be held out of their last pay check by appellants.

Prior to that time, the breakdown had matured the policy, as the appellants well knew. The appellants neither disclosed the existence of the policy to the respondents, nor deducted their premium contributions from their last pay checks. • They did make claim and were paid under the policy for the loss of charter hire, due to breakdown, in the amount of $9,075. Had they deducted the premium contributions, as it was their right and duty to do, respondents would have learned of the existence of the policy. Respondents had no duty as to premiums prior to learning of the existence of the policy, and did not breach the insurance agreement. Their premiums were paid by the trial court deducting them from their judgments. Appellants are not aggrieved.

Appellants contend that respondents breached their contract of employment by abandoning the vessel, after the breakdown, but prior to the expiration of the charter.

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Bluebook (online)
238 P.2d 397, 39 Wash. 2d 737, 1951 Wash. LEXIS 349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abelsen-v-prothero-wash-1951.