Cox v. English-American Underwriters

142 F. Supp. 824, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3209
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJune 21, 1956
DocketCiv. No. 7037
StatusPublished

This text of 142 F. Supp. 824 (Cox v. English-American Underwriters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cox v. English-American Underwriters, 142 F. Supp. 824, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3209 (N.D. Cal. 1956).

Opinion

HALBERT, District Judge.

Plaintiff originally brought this action in the Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Shasta, on a fire insurance policy seeking to recover the loss, which he alleges he sustained as the result of a fire. Defendant had the case removed to this Court on the jurisdictional basis of diversity of citizenship. Defendant moved this Court for a summary judgment. Argument on this motion was heard by this Court in due course, and the motion was submitted for decision after counsel, at the Court’s request, filed memoranda in support of their positions. Thereafter, on a date subsequent to the submission of the motion for summary judgment, but before a decision had been rendered, plaintiff moved this Court for leave to file a supplemental complaint pursuant to Rule 15(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. This Court ordered this latter motion submitted, and announced that it would consider and decide both motions at the same time.

The motion for summary judgment, which was made by the defendant, is predicated on the single proposition that there had not been arbitration as to the dispute between the parties as to the actual cash value or the amount of loss, and that such an arbitration by the terms of the insurance policy is a condition precedent to bringing suit on the policy. The proposed supplemental complaint is intended to show that since the filing of the original complaint in this action arbitration has in fact been completed in the manner prescribed by the insurance policy.

Preliminarily, it is to be noted that this Court’s decision as to the motion for summary judgment will be determinative of the fate of plaintiff’s motion seeking leave to file a supplemental complaint in this case. This is for the reason that even though the granting or refusing of leave to file a supplemental pleading rests in the sound discretion of the trial court, Schuckman v. Rubenstein, 6 Cir., 164 F.2d 952, and United States v. L. D. Caulk Co., D.C., 114 F.Supp. 939, a supplemental complaint based upon facts which occurred after the filing of the original complaint cannot be used to cure a complaint which failed initially to state a cause of action. Bonner v. Elizabeth Arden, Inc., 2 Cir., 177 F.2d 703, and Berssenbrugge v. Luce Mfg. Co., D.C., 30 F.Supp. 101. Plaintiff’s right to recover must be predicated upon facts in existence at the time the complaint was filed. Bowles v. Senderowitz, D.C., 65 F.Supp. 548, and Porter v. Senderowitz, 3 Cir., 158 F.2d 435. It must therefore follow that if in this case no [826]*826cause of action existed at the time the initial complaint was filed, for the reason that a condition precedent to bringing suit had not been satisfied, the supplemental complaint may not be filed to state a cause of action based upon facts occurring subsequent to the filing of the original complaint.

The sole question for this Court to determine in order to reach a decision on the motion for a summary judgment is whether or not arbitration was a condition precedent to bringing this action. The provisions of the California Standard Form Fire Insurance Policy, California Insurance Code, § 2071, which are pertinent to the question before the Court, read as follows:

“Appraisal
"In ease the insured and this company shall fail to agree as to the actual cash value or the amount of loss, then, on the written demand of either, each shall select a competent and disinterested appraiser and notify the other of the appraiser selected within 20 days of such demand.
* * * * * *
“Suit
“No suit or action on this policy for the recovery of any claim shall be sustainable in any court of law or equity unless all the requirements of this policy shall have been complied with, and unless commenced within 12 months next after inception of the loss.”

It has long been the law in California that policy provisions such as those set forth above create a condition precedent to the bringing of a suit on an insurance policy when the amount of value of the loss is in dispute. Old Saucelito Land & Dry Dock Co. v. Commercial Union Assurance Co., 66 Cal. 253, 5 P. 232, and Adams v. South British and National Fire and Marine Insurance Companies, 70 Cal. 198, 11 P. 627. However, arbitration exists as a condition precedent only when there is a failure of the parties to agree as to the amount or value of the loss, and if the insurance company denies liability on the policy, there is a waiver of arbitration as a condition precedent, since there is then not a dispute as to the amount of the loss, but rather a dispute as to the liability of the company. Farnum v. Phoenix Ins. Co., 83 Cal. 246, 23 P. 869; Jacobs v. Farmers’ Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 5 Cal.App.2d 1, 41 P.2d 960, and Bass v. Farmers Mutual Protective Fire Ins. Co., 21 Cal.App.2d 21, 68 P.2d 302. In order for the denial of liability to waive the arbitration condition precedent, and give a right to an immediate cause of action, it must be an unconditional denial, that is, it must be a denial based on something other than a dispute as to the amount of the loss or an objection to the proofs of loss. See: Farnum v. Phoenix Ins. Co., supra; Jacobs v. Farmers’ Mutual Fire Ins. Co., supra; Bass v. Farmers Mutual Protective Fire Ins. Co., supra, and 3 A.L.R.2d 409. Some examples of denials of liability by insurance companies, which have been held to waive arbitration as a condition precedent, are: (1) a denial of liability on the basis that the policy did not exist as it had been cancelled two months before the loss, Farnum v. Phoenix Ins. Co., supra; (2) a denial of liability on the basis that the policy had been rendered void by the fraudulent representations of the insured, Jacobs v. Farmers’ Mutual Fire Ins. Co., supra; and (3) a denial of liability on the basis that the policy was void in that the insured made misstatements of fact in his application for fire insurance. Bass v. Farmers Mutual Protective Fire Ins. Co., supra. In the above examples, the insurance company did not question the amount or the proof of loss, but rather their complete liability under the policy. The American rule, as it is aptly set forth in 3 A.L.R.2d 409, is “that if the insurance company takes a stand of unconditional or total denial of any liability on the policy itself, the insured may maintain an action thereon notwithstanding there has been no such determination of loss or damage by third persons as required by the ‘appraisement’ or limited ‘arbitration’ clause.” To summarize on [827]*827this point, it may be properly said that the law is that an arbitration clause is a condition precedent to bringing suit when the amount of the loss is in dispute, except in those cases where there is an unconditional denial of liability by the insurance company.

In order to get the course of events leading up to this action in proper perspective, it will be helpful to set forth these events in their chronological order. These events occurred in the following sequence:

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Related

Jacobs v. Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
41 P.2d 960 (California Court of Appeal, 1935)
Bollinger v. National Fire Insurance
154 P.2d 399 (California Supreme Court, 1944)
Berssenbrugge v. Luce Mfg. Co.
30 F. Supp. 101 (W.D. Missouri, 1939)
Bowles v. Senderowitz
65 F. Supp. 548 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1946)
Porter v. Senderowitz
158 F.2d 435 (Third Circuit, 1946)
Schuckman v. Rubenstein
164 F.2d 952 (Sixth Circuit, 1947)
Bonner v. Elizabeth Arden, Inc.
177 F.2d 703 (Second Circuit, 1949)
Farnum v. Phoenix Insurance
23 P. 869 (California Supreme Court, 1890)
Bass v. Farmers Mutual Protective Fire Insurance
68 P.2d 302 (California Court of Appeal, 1937)
United States v. L. D. Caulk Co.
114 F. Supp. 939 (D. Delaware, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 F. Supp. 824, 1956 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-v-english-american-underwriters-cand-1956.