Hanover Fire Ins. v. Germania Fire Ins.

18 N.Y.S. 50, 70 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 275, 43 N.Y. St. Rep. 454, 63 Hun 275
New York Supreme Court·Decided February 18, 1892·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Lawrence, J.

This is an appeal by the defendant the Germania Fire Insurance Company from so much or such part of the judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant as grants to said plaintiff an allowance of $2,000, in addition to costs. The complaint sets forth that the plaintiff and defendant companies entered into an agreement whereby they formed the underwriters’ agency, to be carried on under the management of the defendant Alexander Stoddard, of which the defendant Kahl was appointed treasurer, and which agreement terminated by its terms on the 31st of December, 1883, and by the terms of which agreement the business of the agency was to be [51] wound up, upon the termination of the contract, under the direction and management of the general agent, unless both of the contracting parties object to his so acting; that the defendant Alexander Stoddard is the only person who can be procured for the purpose of winding up that business without great detriment to the interest of the parties; that, notwithstanding said agreement, the defendant company has hindered, obstructed, and continues to hinder and obstruct, the said Stoddard in closing up the said business, and demands judgment that the defendant company specifically perform said agreement, and be enjoined and restrained from in any manner preventing or interfering with the closing up by said Stoddard of the business of said agency, or with the assets, money, property, matters, or any of them, pertaining to the liquidation or closing up of said business, and from appointing or continuing or otherwise placing any other person other than the said Stoddard to act in and about the liquidation, settling up, or closing up of the said business, and that the said John E. ICahl be required, by the mandate or order of this court, to obey, honor, and recognize all the acts of said Stoddard in and about the closing up of the said business, and that he be restrained from preventing and obstructing the closing up of the same, and that plaintiff have such other and further relief as to the court may seem just and equitable, together with the costs of the action. The answer of the defendant, while admitting the making of the agreement set forth in the complaint, and the employment of Stoddard as general agent, denies any violation of the agreement on their part, and sets up, as a separate defense, that the general agent, during the continuance of the underwriters’ agency, composed of the plaintiff and defendant companies, and in violation of his agreement with them, undertook the formation of another underwriters’ agency of the same character, and to do business in the same territory as the said former agency, between the Hanover and Citizens’ Companies, to the exclusion of the defendant company, and for that purpose made use of the name, agents, facilities, etc., of said agency, and alleges that, by reason of said act, the said Stoddard was not a fair, impartial, and fit person to be intrusted with the management and winding up of the affairs of said agency. The answer demands judgment that the complaint may be dismissed, and that said Stoddard may be declared to have violated his agreement, and be enjoined from interfering with the property or affairs of said underwriters’ agency, and that he and the plaintiff be enjoined ■from using the name of the New York Underwriters’ Agency in conjunction with any one excepting the defendant company. An injunction during the pendency of the action was granted, upon motion by the plaintiff, which, upon appeal, was affirmed by the general term of this court, (33 Hun, 539;) and upon the trial it was determined that the plaintiff was entitled to the injunction demanded in the complaint. It will be observed that in the complaint no pecuniary judgment is demanded against the defendants, or either of them. There is an allegation in the fifth paragraph of the complaint that the business carried on under the agreement became large and profitable, and there is ■an affirmative allegation, in the thirteenth paragraph of the defendant’s answer, that the name of the New York Underwriters’ Agency possessed and possesses a pecuniary value of at least $50,000. As was before stated, the special term, in rendering judgment, determined that the plaintiff was entitled simply to an injunction giving no pecuniary judgment, but it awarded to the plaintiff, in addition to the costs, an extra allowance of $2,000, and from that provision in the judgment, the defendant the Germania Fire Insurance Company. has appealed.

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Hanover Fire Ins. v. Germania Fire Ins., 18 N.Y.S. 50, 70 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 275, 43 N.Y. St. Rep. 454, 63 Hun 275 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1892).

18 N.Y.S. 50 (Hanover Fire Ins. v. Germania Fire Ins.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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