Cather v. Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp., Ltd., of London, England

94 F. Supp. 511, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2176
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedNovember 15, 1950
DocketCiv. A. No. 32-50
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 94 F. Supp. 511 (Cather v. Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp., Ltd., of London, England) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cather v. Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp., Ltd., of London, England, 94 F. Supp. 511, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2176 (D. Neb. 1950).

Opinion

DELEHANT, District Judge.

The defendant moves that this action be dismissed because, (a) the complaint fails to state a claim against the defendant upon which relief can be granted, and (b) the amended complaint fails to include parties indispensable to tire determination of the claim reflected in it.

The former of the two grounds has not been supported by argument or briefs; and it is manifestly untenable. The latter ground has been submitted to the court on oral arguments and briefs and is now considered. It will be understood more clearly if the history of this action is recalled.

Tn his original complaint, the plaintiff, a citizen of Nebraska, -alleged the issuance by the defendant, a British corporation, of a policy of Workmen’s Compensation insurance identified by its serial number, without, however, alleging the identity of the assured under the policy. It then alleged that, some six months after the issuance of the policy, “by endorsement attached to said policy * * * the coverage of said policy was extended to plaintiff”; that thereby, and by the policy, the defendant undertook to defend the plaintiff against claims made against him under the Nebraska Workmen’s Compensation Law, R.S. 1943, § 48-101 et seq., and to pay in the plaintiff’s behalf all sums due from him under such law; that, thereafter, a designated employee of the plaintiff in his business was injured in an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, who made claim, and. later prosecuted to final judgment a proceeding, for benefits under the cited law, with the consequence that an award for such benefits in amounts and with present value largely exceeding $3,000 is outstanding in favor of the employee and against the plaintiff,; and that [513]*513the defendant has refused to acknowledge liability in the premises under the policy with its endorsement, or to defend against the claim or proceeding or to satisfy the judgment. In that complaint the plaintiff prayed “(1) that defendant be required to perform its obligations under the aforesaid contract of insurance, and in the alternative (2) that if specific performance is not granted that plaintiff have judgment against the defendant in the sum” alleged to be the present value of the future payments required in the pleaded compensation award or judgment.

To that pleading a motion, now of no significance, was tendered and, upon hearing, denied. D.C. 10 F.R.D. 437. But shortly after that denial the plaintiff filed an amended complaint. It sets out the •plaintiff’s claim with much greater particularity than did the original complaint and with a substantial departure, both in basic facts and in the relief sought. The factual variation observable in the amended complaint has to do with the manner of the issuance and endorsement of the policy and with the circumstances thereof. The amended pleading asserts that a local Lincoln, Nebraska, insurance agency, as the defendant’s authorized representative, on July 2, 1948 issued the policy to the plaintiff’s father, Howard B. Cather, 2810 P Street, Lincoln, who was then individually engaged in the general contracting business at that address; that Howard B. Cather’s three sons, Howard B. Cather, Jr., Robert H. Cather and the plaintiff, were associated with their father in that business (although the date of the commencement of such association, beyond an inference that it began after July 2, 1948 and before July 20, 1949, is not clearly disclosed); that the plaintiff as an individual also operated at and out of the same address an outdoor advertising and sign painting business in which his father and brothers had no interest; that on July 20, 1949 the defendant’s agent, upon Howard B. Cather’s oral notification and request, made and furnished an endorsement to the policy, changing the named insured to read as follows: “Howard B. Cather, Sr., Howard B. Cather, Jr., Robert Cather and Myers B. Cather D/B/A Cather Construction Company, a co-partnership” ; that, in point of fact, in his oral notification and request to the defendant’s agent, Howard B. Cather not only notified tlie agent of the association of his three sons with him in the general contracting business but also notified such agent of the concurrent operation at the same address by the plaintiff individually of the outdoor advertising and sign painting business and requested that the endorsement be so framed as to provide, and by the agent was assured, that it would provide, Workmen’s Compensation coverage for both businesses; notwithstanding which, the endorsement actually made, covered in its language only the partnership and its general contracting business. Making again the allegations of the original complaint touching the injury of the alleged employee (obviously one of the plaintiff’s brothers and partners in the general contracting enterprise) and the ensuing claim and litigation, the amended complaint tenders the following prayer: “that the insurance contract hereinbefore described be reformed to express the real agreement of the parties, and that he have judgment against the defendant for the sum” of the alleged present worth of the award.

The instant motion followed the service and filing of the amended complaint, and it is bottomed on the plaintiff’s failure to make the designated partners in the general contracting business and named persons insured by the policy under the endorsed modification, (other than the plaintiff) parties to the action.

The defendant’s right to tender its position by motion is declared by Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. rule 12(b) (7), 28 U.S.C.A., whose material language is: “Every defense, in law -or fact, to a claim for relief in any pleading, whether a claim, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim, shall be asserted in the responsive pleading thereto if one is required, except that the following defenses may at the option of the pleader be made by motion: * * * (7) failure to join an indispensable party.”

Rule 19 deals with necessary joinder of parties. Its first two subsections follow:

[514]*514“Necessary Joinder of Parties

“(a) * * * Subject to the provisions of Rule 23 and of subdivision (b) of this rule, persons having a joint interest shall be made parties and be joined on the same side as plaintiffs or defendants. When a person who should join as a plaintiff refuses to do so, he may be made a defendant or, in proper cases, an involuntary plaintiff.

“(b) * * * When persons who are not indispensable, but who ought to be parties if complete relief is to be accorded between those already parties, have not been made parties and are subject to the jurisdiction of the court as to both service of process and venue and can be made parties without depriving the court of jurisdiction of the parties before it, the court shall order them summoned to appear in the action. The court in its discretion may proceed in the action without making such persons parties, if its jurisdiction over them as to either service of process or venue can be acquired only by their consent or voluntary appearance or if, though they are subject to its jurisdiction, their j-oinder would deprive the court of jurisdiction of the parties before it; but the judgment rendered therein does not affect the rights or liabilities of absent persons.”

The prime question, therefore, is. the relationship, if any, towards this action of the partnership and its members designated in the pleaded endorsement, in the light of the character, coverage and obligations of the policy itself.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 F. Supp. 511, 1950 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2176, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cather-v-ocean-accident-guarantee-corp-ltd-of-london-england-ned-1950.