Amalgamated Roofing Co. v. Travelers Insurance

221 Ill. App. 213, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 37
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 18, 1921
DocketGen. No. 25,562
StatusPublished

This text of 221 Ill. App. 213 (Amalgamated Roofing Co. v. Travelers Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amalgamated Roofing Co. v. Travelers Insurance, 221 Ill. App. 213, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 37 (Ill. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinions

Mr. Presiding Justice Taylor

delivered- the opinion of the court.

On February 7, 1919, the -plaintiff, Amalgamated Boofing Company, brought suit in the municipal court against the defendant, The Travelers Insurance Company, for the sum of $4,000 on an employer’s liability policy. The cause was tried without a jury and judgment entered that the plaintiff take nothing by its suit and that the defendant recover its costs. This appeai is therefrom.

The plaintiff, Amalgamated Boofing Company, is a corporation formed for the purpose of manufacturing, buying and selling, at wholesale and retail, roofing materials, “and to construct and erect all kinds of buildings and parts thereof.” In June, 1918, it bad a plant at Clearing, Illinois, for manufacturing prepared roofing, asphalt shingles, roof paints and roof cement. The main plant consisted of three parts: a building in the center 180 by 60 feet; a building on the east 180 by 50 feet; and a building on the west 180 by 50 feet. There was also a loading platform 180 by 12 feet; one room 40 by 25 feet for the manufacture of cement; and a boiler room and a still room 45 by 170 feet. Shortly prior to or about the 1st of June, 1918, the plaintiff undertook to erect a building, a new warehouse, 83 feet wide and about 175 feet long, at the north end of its original structure, using the north wall of the original structure as a part of the new addition or warehouse. The new building was to be a one-story building and be connected by means of fire doors with the old building. About the middle óf May, 1918, one S. K. Milligan, president of the plaintiff company, entered into negotiations with one Colvin, a roofing contractor, who was an old customer of the plaintiff, telling him that the plaintiff company was about to erect a new building and that it would like bim to do the work of constructing the roof on the new building; that the plaintiff would supply the material. Milligan also told Colvin that the plaintiff had some roofs, on the old buildings, to repair and also some other work, and that the plaintiff would like all the work done at the same time. The price for the work was talked over, and Colvin told him that it would cost approximately $1.50 a square to lay the roof on the new building, the plaintiff to furnish the roofing material. The old work was to be done afterwards, and no price as to that was decided upon. As a result of the negotiations Colvin shortly after-wards began the work.

It is the testimony of Milligan, that prior to the 1st of June, 1918, he told Colvin that one MacLean, the superintendent of the plaintiff, would tell him, Colvin, what materials to use on the new building and also on the old buildings which were to be repaired; that Colvin was to look to MacLean for instructions as to the work on the old buildings.

It is the testimony of Colvin that about the 2nd of May, 1918, he had a conversation with Milligan and was informed that he, Colvin, was to consult with Superintendent MacLean as to the details of the work. The evidence shows that MacLean and Colvin consulted togethe'r as to the selection of all the material, and where it was to go, and that MacLean, to quite an extent and on a number of occasions, moved Colvin’s men about from shop to shop.

When MacLean was asked, who was the foreman on the job under Colvin, he said that they had a dispute about it and that Colvin’s foreman quit; that from time to time prior to June 1, 1918, men working for Colvin came to him, MacLean, and asked him concerning what work they should do and how they should do it; that that occurred frequently and that he gave them instructions.

On June 1, 1918, one Walter M. Frame,.who was hired by Colvin, while working upon the new building, received an injury which resulted in his death. The deceased left Rhoda Frame, his widow, and two children, Raymond Frame, 10 years of age and Walter Glenn Frame, 5 years of age.

On June 1, 1918, the name of Frame was not on the pay roll of the plaintiff; he was not employed by it nor at that time did Colvin have any insurance against liability under the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

More than 2 years before, on February 19, 1916, the plaintiff, Amalgamated Roofing Company, took out an employer’s liability policy in the defendant company. The general business operations upon the plaintiff’s premises were therein described as “Manufacturing roofing paper.”

It was admitted at the trial that the plaintiff, Amalgamated Roofing Company, had elected .to be bound by the Workmen’s Compensation Act prior to tho time of the accident and had not retracted the election and that it had elected to and was bound by the Workmen’s Compensation Act since the date of the policy sued upon.

On February 28, 1916, the defendant, in a writing, notified the Industrial Board at Springfield, Illinois, of the issuance of the policy in question. In that notification the following language occurs: “Employees excluded from coverage of policy as follows: None.” It was admitted that the policy sued upon was in force at the time of the institution of this action.

On July 11, 1918, Rhoda Frame, administratrix of the estate of Walter M. Frame, deceased, filed an application for an adjustment of claim with the industrial Board of Illinois. In that application it was stated that the employer was the Amalgamated Roofing Company, J. N. Colvin and J. N. Colvin Roofing Company. Subsequently, after a finding and decision by the arbitrator, the Industrial Commission on December 2, 1918, ordered that the award of the arbitraltor should stand as and for the decision of the commission. The arbitrator found that the parties were operating under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act and that on June 1, 1918, Walter Frame sustained accidental injuries which arose out of and in the course of his employment; that the peth tioner, Rhoda Frame, administratrix, was entitled to $10 a week for 400 weeks.

The proceedings before the arbitrator and the Industrial Commission, as far as the respondents in that case were concerned and-until the final decision by the Industrial Commission, were taken charge of by representatives of the defendant and Milligan. Immediately thereafter, some time in December, 1918, the attorney for the defendant undertook to turn over the matter as it then stood to the attorney for the plaintiff, claiming that the defendant was not liable. Some correspondence then took place between counsel for the plaintiff and for'the defendant, which shows that they then, at least, disagreed as to the liability of the defendant.

The plaintiff having taken out the Employers’ Liability Policy in the defendant company, and brought this suit, the question now arises whether the defendant, by reason of that policy of insurance, is liable for the amounts which the plaintiff has been ordered under the Workmen’s Compensation Law to pay Frame’s representatives.

The plaintiff made a contract with Colvin to have certain roofing work done. Colvin employed, as a workman, one Frame. - The latter was killed while at that work for Colvin.' Section 31 of the Workmen’s Compensation Law [Callaghan’s 1916 Stat. ¶[ 5475(31) ] provides that if the plaintiff failed to require Colvin to insure his liability to pay the compensation, provided in the act, to any of his employees who might be injured, it, the plaintiff, should he liable.

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Related

Illinois Indemnity Exchange v. Industrial Commission
124 N.E. 665 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
221 Ill. App. 213, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amalgamated-roofing-co-v-travelers-insurance-illappct-1921.