Goddard v. Northwestern Mutual Fire Ass'n

148 P. 893, 85 Wash. 585, 1915 Wash. LEXIS 862
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMay 27, 1915
DocketNo. 12247
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 148 P. 893 (Goddard v. Northwestern Mutual Fire Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goddard v. Northwestern Mutual Fire Ass'n, 148 P. 893, 85 Wash. 585, 1915 Wash. LEXIS 862 (Wash. 1915).

Opinion

Parker, J.

This is an action upon an insurance policy issued by the defendant to its agents, Canutt & Conn, upon grain in storage as specified in certificates of assignment to be issued by Canutt & Conn as contemplated by the terms of the policy; $5,600 of the insurance evidenced by the policy having been assigned by Canutt & Conn to the plaintiff, insuring the plaintiff against loss or damage by fire on wheat owned by him while stored in the Kerr-Gifford warehouse at Warner’s Siding, in Whitman county. Trial before the court and a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment against the defendant for $5,523.89, from which it has appealed to this court.

It is contended by counsel for appellant that the trial court erred in overruling their challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain any recovery by the respondent, made upon the ground that there was default on the part of respondent in the payment of the premium upon the insurance assigned to him, as required by the terms of the policy. Among other provisions of the policy is the following:

“The premium specified in this policy shall be due on the date the insurance becomes effective. Thirty days’ grace will be allowed before the payment becomes delinquent. This association shall not be liable on this policy for the payment of any loss or damage that may occur to the property insured herein when the insured is delinquent on any premium payment due on this policy.”

Upon the issuance of the certificate of assignment by Canutt & Conn to respondent of $5,600 of the insurance, which certificate is signed by appellant by its secretary as well as by Canutt & Conn, it was therein recited that “In consideration of thirty-five dollars to me (us) in hand paid by W. H. Goddard, I (we) hereby assign to him fifty-six hundred dollars of insurance under policy A 1517 issued to me (us) by the Northwestern Mutual Fire Association . . . . ”, followed by terms and conditions to be read in connection with the policy; thus in effect acknowledging receipt [587]*587of the $35 premium to be paid by respondent for such assigned insurance. Upon delivery, of this certificate of assignment to respondent, instead of paying the $35 premium in cash, he executed and delivered to Canutt & Conn his promissory note for that sum, drawing six per cent interest. This note matured June 19, 1912, sixty days after the date and delivery of the certificate of assignment by which respondent’s insurance became effective. The fire occurred on July 23, 1912, at which time the note given by respondent in payment of the premium had matured and was unpaid. A short time thereafter the principal and interest due upon the note was paid in full by the respondent to Canutt & Conn, when they surrendered the note to him. The note became lost before the trial of this action, so that we do not have it before us. However, no claim is made that it was other than an ordinary promissory note, nor that it contained any provisions suggesting in the least that its nonpayment at maturity would affect the continuing validity or force of the insurance under the policy and assignment of insurance to respondent. The evidence warrants the conclusion that the receiving of such a note in settlement of the premium upon the policy and assignment of insurance made thereunder to respondent was customary with appellant. Indeed, the printed form of the note here involved was furnished by appellant to its agents, Canutt & Conn, for this purpose.

Counsel for appellant invokes the doctrine of a line of decisions dealing with forfeiture provisions in policies expressly providing, in substance, that if a note be given in payment of premium and remain unpaid at maturity, the insurance thereupon .ceases to be effective, as in Iles v. Mutual Reserve Life Ins. Co., 50 Wash. 49, 96 Pac. 522, 126 Am. St. 886, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 902, and Iowa Life Ins. Co. v. Lewis, 187 U. S. 335; or dealing with cases where similar forfeiture provisions are found in the terms of the note itself, as in Reed v. Bankers’ Reserve Life Ins. Co., 192 Fed. 408; or dealing with cases where similar forfeiture provisions are [588]*588found in the terms of orders given upon third parties for the payment of premium installments falling due in the future, as in Gilmore v. Continental Casualty Co., 58 Wash. 203, 108 Pac. 447; and Pride v. Continental Casualty Co., 69 Wash. 428, 125 Pac. 787.

The doctrine of these decisions, and others involving similar forfeiture provisions to which our attention has been called by counsel for appellant, we thinlc has no application to the facts of this case. While by the terms of this policy the rights of the insured are subject to forfeiture “when the insured is delinquent on any premium payment due on this policy,” there is nothing in the policy, or the assignment of insurance made thereunder to respondent, preventing the payment of the premium by an interest bearing promissory note; nor is there anything in the policy, the assignment of insurance made to respondent or in the note itself, rendering the insurance ineffective by failure of respondent to pay the note at maturity. In Arkansas Ins. Co. v. Cox, 21 Okl. 873, 98 Pac. 552, 129 Am. St. 808, 20 L. R. A. (N. S.) 775, 783, the court had under consideration a situation like that here involved, and in disposing of the contention that the insurance had ceased to be effective because of the failure of the assured to pay the promissory notes at maturity given in settlement of the premium, said:

“Plaintiff executed two promissory notes in payment of the premium on the policy. These notes were past due and unpaid at the time of the institution of this suit, and defendant contends for forfeiture of the policy for the nonpayment of said notes, but neither the notes nor the policy make the validity of the policy contingent upon the payment of the notes. These notes were given by plaintiff and accepted by defendant in payment of the premium just as so much cash, and plaintiff is liable thereon for the amount of the same. Plaintiff in fact has tendered payment of the same to the company, which was refused. In the absence of stipulation in the note or in the policy of insurance that failure to pay the notes given in payment of the premium should operate as a forfeiture of the policy or a suspension of the risk, the [589]*589policy will continue in force after the maturity of the notes although the same are not paid. Joyce on Insurance, vol. 2, § 1212.”

In view of the recital in the certificate of assignment of the insurance to respondent, which is in effect an acknowledgment of the receipt of the premium in full, the delivery of the assignment to respondent, the acceptance of the promissory note containing no provision looking to tei’mination of the insurance upon a failure to pay the note at maturity, and the absence of any such provision in the policy or certificate of assignment, we are of the opinion that the note was accepted as cash in full payment of the premium and that, therefore, its nonpayment at maturity had no effect whatever upon the insurance. The following decisions support this view. Massachusetts Benefit Life Ass’n v. Robinson, 104 Ga. 256, 30 S. E. 918, 42 L. R. A. 261; New England Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Hasbrook’s Adm’r, 32 Ind. 447; Michigan Mut. Life Ins. Co. w. Bowes, 42 Mich. 19, 51 N. W. 962; McAllister v. New England Mut. Life Ins. Co., 101 Mass. 558, 3 Am. Rep. 404; Michigan Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Hall,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 P. 893, 85 Wash. 585, 1915 Wash. LEXIS 862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goddard-v-northwestern-mutual-fire-assn-wash-1915.