Camden Fire Ins. Ass'n v. Carroll

102 S.W.2d 1067
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 5, 1937
DocketNo. 13500
StatusPublished

This text of 102 S.W.2d 1067 (Camden Fire Ins. Ass'n v. Carroll) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Camden Fire Ins. Ass'n v. Carroll, 102 S.W.2d 1067 (Tex. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

BROWN, Justice.

For convenience, the parties will be referred to as appellant and appellee.

The undisputed facts disclose that ap-pellee Carroll applied to a local firm of insurance agents, to wit, Harrison-Ken-nady & Co., for a fire insurance policy, on a trailer owned by him, and that such insurance agents executed and delivered to appellee a fire insurance policy, the insurer being the St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, for which company Harrison-Kennady & Co. were the duly authorized agents, and that before the expiration of such policy, such insurer demanded of said local agents that said insurance policy be canceled.

The policy of insurance had been delivered to appellee, who was traveling over the country and who could not be readily located and contacted by Harrison-Ken-nady & Co. Upon receipt of such request by the insurer, Harrison-Kennady & Co., being unable to write any other policy on the trailer for appellee in any company represented by them, communicated with Cravens-Dargan & Co., insurance agents of Houston, Tex., who represented a large number of insurance companies, and on April 12, 1934, Cravens-Dargan & Co. being then the duly authorized agents of the Camden Fire Insurance Association, appellant here, executed the policy in controversy with said last-named insurance company as the insurer, and delivered same to Harrison-Kennady & Co. for delivery to appellee. Harrison-Kennady & Co. turned the policy over to one of its solicitors, Mr. Kenyon, who had solicited the insurance in the first instance. During all of this time, appellee Carroll was absent from Fort Worth, Tex., and Mr. Kenyon held the policy in his hands.

It is undisputed that while the last-named policy was in the hands of Harrison-Kennady & Co., Cravéns-Dargan & Co. wrote Harrison-Kennady & Co. instructing them to cancel the policy of insurance in question, and on August 1, 1934, wrote’ the following letter:

[1068]*1068“We have not as yet received copy of registered notice of cancellation on the above captioned St. Paul policy which we requested that you send out immediately in our letter of July 18.
“Due to the unfortunate experience which we have had on these risks, we now have no alternative but to ask that you send out registered notices of cancellation also on Camden policy No. 17975 unless you still have it in your possession.
“If for some reason you do not wish to send out these registered notices from your office, advise us by return mail so that we can attend to it promptly.”
The undisputed testimony shows that Harrison-Kennady & Co. delivered this letter to solicitor Kenyon for attention.
The ledger sheet produced by Harrison-Kennady & Co., showing the condition of appellee’s account, discloses an entry showing that the “St. Paul” policy was rewritten in the “Camden” Company and Carroll credited with the premium 'charged to him on the “St. Paul” policy; and that on April 12, 1934, appellee was charged the premium of $27.50 on the “Camden” Company policy; and that an entry was made on August 26, 1934, with respect to such Camden policy, “Cancelled by Company.”

It appears that long after these happenings and in the late fall of 1934, Harrison-Kennady & Co. delivered the Camden policy to appellee Carroll, and that the trailer burned.

Appellant denied any liability under the policy, and appellee brought suit, alleging, in substance, that he was the owner or the trailer on or about April 12, 1934, and that appellant issued and delivered to him the policy in controversy, “whereby, ' in consideration of the payment by said plaintiff to defendant of the premiums therein specified, the defendant insured said plaintiff against loss by fire to the amount of $1000.00.” He alleged that at the time of the destruction of his property he had in all respects complied with the conditions and provisions of the policy of insurance and had paid all the premiums accrued and due thereon; had made proof of destruction of his property and demanded the sum of money owing 'to him under the policy, and asked for judgment thereon.

Appellant answered, after a general demurrer and a general denial, denying that the policy of insurance sued upon was ever delivered to appellee with its consent or by any person having authority to deliver same, denying that appellee had ever paid it any consideration for the policy, and denying that the said Kenyon was its agent or had any authority from it to make a contract of insurance for it, and asserting that Kenyon was only a solicitor of insurance, and pleaded further that Kenyon failed in his attempt to substitute appellant’s policy for the policy written by the St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, and alleged that long prior to the delivery of its policy to appellee it had canceled same, and had specifically instructed Harrison-Kennady & Co. that it did not desire to cover the risk on the property in question, but demanded the redelivery of the policy of insurance, and that contrary to and despite such specific instructions and cancellation, all had prior to the time of the delivery of the policy to Carroll, the solicitor Kenyon, without any authority from appellant to do so and without its knowledge or consent, and in a manner unknown to appellant, got possession of the policy of insurance and attempted to substitute the “St. Paul” policy therefor; and denied that such acts on the part of Kenyon effected a binding contract between it and appellee.

Appellee answered by a supplemental petition, the substance of which is that the matters alleged "by appellant as having-been had and done between it and Harrison-Kennady & Co. were not known to appellee. He further alleged that the policy he sued upon “was forwarded to the local agents of the defendant for delivery to this plaintiff and was constructively and actually delivered to this plaintiff, on or about said date, by the defendant, its-agents, representatives and employees, although the manual and_physical delivery of said policy was made on or about the latter part of September or the first part of October, 1934, by the defendant, its agents, representatives and employees.”

Appellee denied that the policy was ever canceled, and that if any attempted cancellation of the policy was made, such was not done in the manner required by law, and no return of the premium to plaintiff, as required by law, was ever had. He denied that he ever received any letter purporting to cancel the policy.

The undisputed facts disclose that ap-pellee Carroll kept both the St. Paul policy and the Camden' policy in his possession.

[1069]*1069The case was tried to a jury, and after all evidence was introduced, appellant requested a peremptory instruction in its favor, which was refused.

The trial court submitted the cause to a jury on special issues.

Issue No. 1 reads: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that Cravens, Dargan & Company gave notice to the firm of Harrison-Kennady & Company of cancellation of the policy in question?” To this the jury answered: “No.”

Although instructed that should the answer to this first issue be “no,” they need not answer issue No. 2, nevertheless the jury did answer issue No.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
102 S.W.2d 1067, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/camden-fire-ins-assn-v-carroll-texapp-1937.