Allen v. Phoenix Assurance Co.

95 P. 829, 14 Idaho 728, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 67
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMay 6, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 95 P. 829 (Allen v. Phoenix Assurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Phoenix Assurance Co., 95 P. 829, 14 Idaho 728, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 67 (Idaho 1908).

Opinion

STEWABT, J.

This case was before this court, upon appeal from an order sustaining a nonsuit, and is reported in 12 Ida. 653, 88 Pac. 245, 8 L. R. A., N. S., 903. Upon reversal, the cause was tried to a jury and a verdict returned for the [734]*734plaintiffs. The defendant moved for a new trial, which- was denied, and this appeal is from the order denying the new trial, and from the judgment. Many of the questions presented by the record were fully discussed and decided in the former opinion, which is the law of this case, and it can serve no purpose to discuss such questions again.

The record shows that the respondents made application to one C. D. Thomas for insurance upon the property involved. Thomas was agent of the Svea Insurance Company, but was not agent for the appellant company. Thomas testifies that he took the respondents’ application on a Svea insurance blank, signed by the respondents, and the answers to the questions contained therein were filled in by him upon information received from the insured. After the respondents had signed the application, he returned to his office about sixty miles distant, filled in the answers to the questions, and forwarded the application to John Moore, a regularly appointed agent of the appellant. Moore and Thomas had an arrangement, by which upon any risk sent Moore by Thomas the commissions would be divided equally. Upon receipt of the application, Moore wrote the policy involved in this case and transmitted the same to respondents. Moore had no knowledge or information whatever with reference to the risk, except such as he received from the application and the letter of Thomas transmitting the same. The application and the letter of Thomas were the cause which led to said policy being written.

Omitting such parts of the application as are not material, it is as follows:

“Insurance is wanted on the following described property by Sanders & Allen for the term of twelve months, from the 27th day of August, 1901, to the 27th day of’ August, 1902; $250 frame building, two-story, shingle roof, occupied as flour-mill; $500 on 35-horsepower Cooper engine and 50-horse-power Cooper boiler contained in said building; $1250 on machinery contained in said building, situated at Melrose, Idaho. Mail policy to C. D. Thomas at Nez Perce P. O. Question 17: What is your title to ground? Answer. Do[735]*735nated to mill. Question 18: Is property mortgaged! How much? Signed, Sanders & Allen, assured.”

Questions propounded to the agent were then answered and the answers signed by C. D. Thomas, agent. Mr. Moore testified as follows: “I received a letter from Thomas about as follows: ‘Inclosed find application of Sanders & Allen for insurance on a flour-mill, which I consider a very good risk, and it is situated upon homestead or donation property.’ I think he informed me that, and I think I informed the company, instead of a deed it was a homestead, but I am not positive. This is as near as I can recollect about it, and as to any encumbrance upon the property, I have no recollection. There was nothing in the letter that the homestead had been proved up on, only that it was a homestead. I didn’t communicate any information to the company that was not received from Thomas, and I think if the company will look over their files, they will find a letter from me. I write my policy according to my own ideas. I am not governed by the application.”

Mr. Thomas testified: “I looked over the mill thoroughly and I could not say that Allen had told me there was any encumbrance on it. He may have told me. He may not. I could not say. I don’t remember.”

Mr. Allen testified as follows: “I told him [meaning Thomas] there was a mortgage on the property of $300. "We talked along quite a little in regard to it when he was taking the application, and he took it down, asking questions I don’t know what all. He asked me all there was on the application, and I answered them just exactly how it was in regard to the homestead, and in regard to the mortgage and everything, just as near as I knew how.”

There was, in fact, a chattel mortgage covering a part of the property insured, given to one J. P. Yollmer, to secure the payment of a note of $300, executed January 23, 1901. The policy of insurance was assigned to Mr. Yollmer as collateral security for the note of $300.

Mr. Moore testified that: “The application you showed me is not a form of application of the Phoenix Assurance Co. [736]*736In a general way the Phoenix Company did not have any. I never used any. If he had sent me a general statement of the condition of matters connected with it it would have been just the same. I had no application forms for the Phoenix Assurance Co.”

This policy of insurance was written and delivered on August 27, 1901. The property was destroyed by fire on April 23, 1902. After the fire, one MeKowen, an adjuster acting for the appellant company, came to adjust the loss, and after looking over the loss the witness Allen testifies with reference to a conversation with said MeKowen, as follows:

“He says it is a total loss with the exception of the engine and boiler. He asked me for the policy and I told him I did not have the policy, that it was down at Vollmer’s. We owed him a note of $300 and it had come due and we went down to get an extension of time on the note for a month or six weeks, and we told him that we had no place to keep the policy, and to show him that we meant business we left the policy with him as collateral. We met MeKowen down there the next day and he barely passed the time of day; didn’t seem to care whether he done that or not, and he says, ‘I am just over to the bank now to see that policy. ’ And he went over to the bank and pretty soon came back and says, ‘I’ve looked the policy over and found you have assigned it.’ He says, ‘I’ve got no more business to do with you,’ or words to that effect. We saw Mr. MeKowen a time or two next day, or the same day, and didn’t have much talk with him in regard to the matter, and the next morning when we went to go away he shook hands with us, bid us good-by and hoped we would get our money all right and says, ‘As you have put it in the hands of an attorney you will have to look to the company from this on. ’ He says lawing is all right but a little money is sometimes better, and that is the last talk I remember of having with Mr. MeKowen.”

W. L. Thompson, cashier of the First National Bank of Lewiston, testified, among other things, as follows:

“I remember a Mr. J. H. MeKowen, an insurance adjuster for the defendant company, calling on me at Lewiston after [737]*737the fire. At the time he called I stated to him that we had made a mistake in taking an assignment of the policy, not having sent the same to the Moscow agent for approval. That our mistake was not discovered until after the fire had been reported. I also stated to him that we held this policy as collateral for a loan and realized that we had no claim under the policy as assigned. I asked him if he would protect us, or try to protect us, to the amount of our interests when he adjusted the loss. This he promised to do. After this he called on me and made a statement to the effect that he would be willing to adjust the loss on a basis of about the amount of our loan and suggested that I use my influence with Sanders & Allen to accept the same.”

As premium on this insurance the respondents paid to C. D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 P. 829, 14 Idaho 728, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-phoenix-assurance-co-idaho-1908.