E. S. Harper Co. v. General Insurance Co. of America

430 P.2d 658, 91 Idaho 767, 1967 Ida. LEXIS 263
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 18, 1967
Docket9850
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 430 P.2d 658 (E. S. Harper Co. v. General Insurance Co. of America) 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
E. S. Harper Co. v. General Insurance Co. of America, 430 P.2d 658, 91 Idaho 767, 1967 Ida. LEXIS 263 (Idaho 1967).

Opinions

SMITH, Justice.

Appellant (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Harper), brought this action seeking to recover the balance of a fire loss, the inventory of which was allegedly not covered by a provisional reporting form of fire insurance policy, due to the alleged negligence of respondents.

Respondent, General Insurance Company of America (hereinafter sometimes referred to as General), issued the policy through Tandy and Wood, Inc. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the Agent), the agent for General and other insurers.

December 18, 1962, during the policy period, appellant suffered extensive losses of stock and equipment in a fire at Harper’s warehouse in Twin Falls. General conceded liability under the policy of $4,219.35, a sum considerably less than the amount of the loss. Harper commenced this action against respondents for recovery of the value of personal property destroyed by the; fire and not fully compensated by the amount of General’s conceded liability under the policy.

Respondents moved for a summary judgment in favor of appellant and against General in the amount of $4,219.35; also for a summary judgment in favor of the Agent. The district court granted the motions and entered summary .judgments accordingly. Appellant Harper has appealed.

This court has not previously considered the provisional reporting form insurance policy, sometimes referred to as provisional insurance. The discussions contained in certain cases are informative as to the purpose and mechanics of this form of coverage. See Commonwealth Ins. Co. of New York v. O. Henry Tent & Awn. Co., 287 F.2d 316 (7th Cir. 1961); American Eagle Fire Ins. Co. v. Burdine, 200 F.2d 26 (10th Cir. 1952); Columbia Fire Ins. Co. v. Boykin & Tayloe, 185 F.2d 771 (4th Cir. 1950); Anderson Feed & Produce Company v. Moore, 66 Wash.2d 237, 401 P.2d 964 (1965); Albert v. Home Fire and Marine Ins. Co. of California, 275 Wis. 280, 81 N.W.2d 549 (1957); 5 Couch, Insurance § 30:18 (2d ed. 1962); cases collected in Annot. 13 A.L.R.2d 713 (1950).

The provisional reporting form insurance policy which the Agent obtained for Harper provided flexible premium rates and coverage, which varied according to the amount of equipment and stock which the insured actually held and reported as inventory. Certain policy provisions, set forth in the margins, guaranteed Harper coverage of all > stock and equipment reported as inventory' and premium rates directly proportional to the amount of property actually insured. Paragraph 9 of the [769]*769policy, the value reporting clause,1 directed the insured, Harper, to submit to General monthly reports of the location and actual cash value of property which the insured held, and the amount of specific insurance applicable to that property. Paragraph 11, the premium adjustment clause,2 provided that Harper’s insurance premiums should 'be calculated annually according to the average of the monthly values reported. Paragraph 10, the full reporting clause,3 governed General’s liability in the event of loss, and provides in effect that liability under the policy shall not in any case exceed that proportion of any loss which the last reported value, less the amount of specific insurance reported, bears to the actual value less the amount of specific insurance at the time of the report.

Whether the insured obtains total coverage under the terms of this type of policy [770]*770depends upon the insured’s monthly reports of actual values. Understatement of the value of inventory results in proportionately less coverage and payment of' proportionately smaller premium. The insurer, assuming notice that the insured has undervalued or omitted to include some-portion of inventory, may infer that the insured desires to limit its insurance to the amount shown by the insured’s latest monthly report.

In the instant case, Harper departed from the conventional practice of submitting monthly reports directly to the insurer. Harper, and the Agent, through its vice-president Ervin Hill, collaborated from the inception of the policy in 1947 in the preparation and submission of reports to General. Under the practice pursued Harper mailed monthly statements of inventory and specific insurance to Hill at the Agent’s office, and Hill accepted Harper’s inventory statement, made necessary corrections in the specific insurance figures, transferred the figures to General’s monthly reporting forms, and mailed the reports to the insurer. General consistently accepted those forms without protest or inquiry.

Harper’s monthly statement to Hill prior to the fire, understated the value of inventory located in Harper’s Twin Falls warehouse. The statement submitted shortly before the loss4 valued all equipment in that warehouse at $49,430.18. The actual value of that equipment, however, when the fire occurred eighteen days later, as compiled in inventories prepared for the insurance adjustor, was $53,169.75 for major equipment and $23,780.44 for other personal property (miscellaneous equipment), or an aggregate of $76,950.19. Accepting Harper’s statement of value and applying the liability formula stated in paragraph 10, General determined, and conceded, its liability under the policy to be $4,219.35, the amount of the summary judgment against it entered by the district court.

Harper fundamentally challenges the correctness of the summary judgment on the ground that the Agent and General were responsible for Harper’s systematic undervaluation of the Twin Falls properties, and are consequently liable for the amount of actual loss not covered under the terms of Harper’s policy.

Harper’s first contention rests upon the fact that the Agent regularly submitted to General the formal monthly reports, based upon Harper’s inventory statements, and that General accepted the reports over an extended period of time without protest.

Appellant urges the rule that where the insurer has notice that the agent has undertaken the insured’s primary duty of submitting timely monthly reports, and where the insurer declines to protest or object to its agent’s conduct, the insurer cannot interpose as a defense the failure to submit reports, at the times fixed by the policy, prior to the loss. American Eagle Fire Insurance Co. v. Burdine, supra; Columbia Fire Insurance Co. v. Boykin & Tayloe, supra. In the cited cases, the insurer ordinarily received reports of inventory from the agent, and when the agent failed to transmit the reports each month as required by the policy, the insurer was held estopped to assert against the insured the agent’s neglect in complying with the obligation of periodic reporting.

The rule of those cases obviously does not control the present case, where the failure of the policy to cover Harper’s loss fully arose through no infirmity in the procedures for monthly reporting. The Agent diligently transferred the figures [771]*771received from Harper to the reporting forms and — unlike the agents in the aforementioned cases — transmitted the forms promptly to General, the insurer.

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E. S. Harper Co. v. General Insurance Co. of America
430 P.2d 658 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
430 P.2d 658, 91 Idaho 767, 1967 Ida. LEXIS 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/e-s-harper-co-v-general-insurance-co-of-america-idaho-1967.