Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. v. G. III Investments, Ltd.

761 S.W.2d 201, 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 1408, 1988 WL 105230
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 11, 1988
DocketNos. WD 40240, WD 40241
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 761 S.W.2d 201 (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. v. G. III Investments, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. v. G. III Investments, Ltd., 761 S.W.2d 201, 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 1408, 1988 WL 105230 (Mo. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

CLARK, Presiding Judge.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as liquidating and receiving officer for Farmers and Merchants Bank of Huntsville brought this suit in the stead of the bank for breach of contract against G. Ill Investments, G.W. Sparks III and Freída Barbour, insurance brokers, for failure to obtain an insurance policy on property mortgaged to the bank. The issue in the case involves the principles of contract liability to a third party beneficiary of the contract.

Shorn of numerous facts not relevant to the questions on appeal, the origin of the case may be summarized as follows. On November 6, 1979, Gillan Trucking, Inc., borrowed $90,000 from the Farmers Bank to construct a night club. The land was owned by John J. Leroy and Jane Gillan. John and Leroy signed the note to the bank and they, together with Jane Gillan, signed a deed of trust on the property to secure repayment. A second loan of $40,000 was later obtained on similar terms. The night club building burned in March, 1981. The fire was attributed to the arson of John J. Gillan. At the time of the fire, the debt owed the bank on the notes amounted to $130,881.60.

When the loan was first arranged, there was some discussion between a bank officer and Gillan to the effect that a policy of fire insurance would be obtained. No specific amount of coverage was mentioned nor were particular terms of coverage discussed. Thereafter, Gillan contacted the defendants who arranged for a policy to be issued by the Hartford Insurance Company. That policy named the bank as mortgage loss payee and a copy of the policy was delivered to the bank.

After the first year of the insurance coverage, the Hartford refused to renew the policy. Gillan requested the defendants to replace the insurance with another company and a policy was obtained from the St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company. Unlike the Hartford policy, the St. Paul policy did not name the bank as a loss payee. This omission was not noticed at the time by Gillan, defendants or the bank. The evidence conflicted as to whether the bank was aware of the terms of the St. Paul policy and whether the bank was supplied a copy. Gillan testified he took a copy of the policy to the bank but Vic Whitaker, a bank officer, reported that when he looked in the bank files after the fire, he could find no policy.

A claim was made against St. Paul for the fire loss. The claim was denied on the ground of arson. The balance on the loan remains unpaid, except for a fund of $65,-000 which may or may not become available to the bank depending on the outcome of an associated controversy.1

[203]*203The controversy about the insurance coverage centers on the type of mortgage coverage which should have been supplied by the St. Paul policy. The Hartford policy named the bank as loss payee under a standard or union mortgage clause. Such a clause constitutes a separate agreement between the insurer and the mortgagee which cannot be defeated by a breach of policy conditions on the part of the mortgagor. Waynesville Security Bank v. Stuyvesant Ins. Co., 499 S.W.2d 218, 220 (Mo.App.1973). Thus, had the bank been named as a loss payee in the St. Paul policy under a union mortgage clause, the defense of arson committed by Gillan would not have precluded the bank from obtaining payment on the fire claim.

After the fire, an intermediate agent representing the St. Paul Company in dealing with Sparks Company, and at G.W. Spark’s request, issued a policy endorsement naming the bank as mortgagee loss payee.2 The insurance company refused to recognize the endorsement because the agent was asserted to have no authority to so amend a policy after a loss. This is not an issue in contest.

It may be assumed, there being no evidence to the contrary, that the insurance company was willing to honor the bank’s claim to an interest in any settlement made of a loss covered by the policy, but it was unwilling to broaden the coverage by extending the bank the benefits of union mortgage coverage.

Freída Barbour, on behalf of the insurance brokerage, freely acknowledged that the order given her by John J. Gillan had not been executed in that the Hartford policy had not been replaced with equivalent coverage. The matter was attributed to oversight in failing to make an adequate verification of the insuring agreements when the policy was delivered. According to the insurance brokers, however, the Gil-lans were also at fault for failing to examine the policy to determine if the coverage was the same they had ordered.

This suit was brought by the bank against the insurance brokers on the theory that the bank was the intended third party beneficiary of the agreement between the brokers and the Gillans to obtain the replacement insurance policy including union mortgage coverage for the bank. The allegation was that the brokers breached the contract to supply insurance when the policy delivered did not conform to the coverage ordered. The brokers filed a third party petition naming the Gillans as third party defendants and seeking contribution and indemnity on the theory that the Gillans should have noticed the omission of the bank as loss payee and were therefore at fault themselves.

The case was submitted to a jury on the bank’s petition and the brokers’ third party petition with instructions for apportionment of fault.3 The jury found in favor of FDIC as representative for the bank and assessed fault 50% to the brokers and 50% to John and Leroy Gillan. The verdict, before an abortive attempt by the trial judge to add pre-judgment interest on a post-verdict motion, was in the amount of $40,586.70. The FDIC and the insurance brokers, G. Ill Investments, doing business [204]*204as the Sparks Company, and Freida Barbour, appeal.

The insurance brokers contend, in the point dispositive of this appeal, that their motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence and their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been sustained because the FDIC did not make a submissible case. They argue that the bank, as the predecessor in interest to the FDIC’s claim, was not entitled to sue for breach of the contract between the Gillans and the insurance brokers because the bank was, at most, no more than an incidental third party beneficiary.

A third party beneficiary is one who is not privy to a contract but who is benefited by it and who may maintain a cause of action for its breach. Volume Services, Inc. v. C.F. Murphy & Assoc., 656 S.W.2d 785, 794 (Mo.App.1983). Only those third parties for whose primary benefit the contracting parties intended to make the contract may maintain an action. Third party beneficiary status depends not so much on a desire or purpose to confer a benefit on a third person, but rather on an intent that the promisor assume a direct obligation to him. Laclede Inv. Corp. v. Kaiser, 596 S.W.2d 36, 41-42 (Mo.App.1980).

Missouri has adopted the classification of third party beneficiaries appearing in the Restatement of Contracts § 133(1) (1932). Terre Du Lac Ass’n. v. Terre Du Lac, Inc.,

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Bluebook (online)
761 S.W.2d 201, 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 1408, 1988 WL 105230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-deposit-insurance-corp-v-g-iii-investments-ltd-moctapp-1988.