Hanover Insurance Company v. Hoch

469 S.W.2d 717, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2471
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 22, 1971
Docket607
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 469 S.W.2d 717 (Hanover Insurance Company v. Hoch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hanover Insurance Company v. Hoch, 469 S.W.2d 717, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2471 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION

BISSETT, Justice.

This is a suit on a fire insurance policy to recover for the loss of a house that was totally destroyed by fire.

Nicholas Hoch and wife, Josephine C. Hoch, plaintiffs below and appellees herein, sued The Hanover Insurance Company, defendant below and appellant herein, to recover the full amount of a fire insurance policy on a house in which plaintiffs-appel-lees claimed an insurable interest. Trial was to a jury. All issues were answered favorably to plaintiffs-appellees, and based on the jury findings, judgment was entered in their favor in the sum of $4,000.00.

Appellant has duly and timely perfected an appeal to this Court. We affirm.

In November 1960, Mrs. Josephine C. Hoch, appellee, was. notified by her aunt, Mrs. Leola Turner, that she was unable to make the note payments on her home located in Matagorda County, Texas. Mrs. Turner requested financial help and assistance from Mrs. ■ Hoch, whereupon ap-pellees sent Mrs. Turner the .requested amount of money. Thereafter, Mrs. Hoch made the regular monthly payments on the note, which was secured by a vendor’s lien on the home premises then owned by Mrs. Turner. The payments were made by check, duly signed by Mrs. Hoch. A few of the checks were made payable to Mrs. Turner, but the vast majority thereof were made directly to Mrs. Eleanor Church, the mortgagee.

Mrs. Hoch testified that all such payments made by her to Mrs. Turner represented a loan to Mrs. Turner, who promised to repay her. She was corroborated by two of Mrs. Turner’s sisters, Mrs. Henson and Mrs. Colvin, and by her own sister, Mrs. Lewis. In addition, appellees introduced in evidence a copy of a letter that Mrs. Hoch had written to Mrs. Turner, dated June 12, 1961, wherein it is stated definitely that Mrs. Hoch expected to be repaid for all advancements and that such advancements would bear interest at six per cent (6%). Appellant introduced a letter dated March 16, 1961, addressed to Mrs. Turner, signed by Mrs. Hoch, wherein it was stated “Like I said before, should you sell the house at some time in the future, you can pay it back; or if the kids get to where they can, they can pay it back. And if I never get it back, maybe it will help buy me standing room at least in Heaven.”

The note on Mrs. Turner’s home was paid in full about August 1, 1965. During the time that Mrs. Eleanor Church owned the note and the lien securing the same, she (Mrs. Church) kept the house insured against loss or damage by fire.

Mrs. Turner did not repay the loan during her lifetime. She died testate in April 1966. She devised all of her property to her two children, Mrs. Barbara Legg and Alfred Turner. The devise included the house and the land upon which the same was situated, and upon which appellees had made all monthly payments from November 1960 until August 1965. Subsequent to Mrs. Turner’s death, Alfred Turner conveyed his interest in the premises to his sister, Mrs. Barbara Legg.

*720 In October 1966, Mrs. Hoch became concerned about the hazard insurance on the house. Evidently, she had been advised that the house was uninsured. She then contacted Campbell-Huitt Insurance, in Palacios, Texas, and asked an employee of the agency, to check and see if there was any fire insurance on the house. There was some discussion about the matter and Mrs. Hoch explained to the employee of Campbell-Huitt that while she did not own the place, she had, nevertheless, made some of the house payments and claimed an interest in the premises. She exhibited some of her cancelled checks and asked: “Would you please investigate it and see if it is okay to have insurance?” She was advised that they would check it out. Later on, Mrs. Hoch received a letter from Campbell-Huitt Insurance, an agent of the appellant insurance company, dated October 26, 1966, reference “Insurance on Mrs. Alfred Turner Estate Dwelling”, signed by J. Fred Huitt; the first paragraph of the letter reads as follows:

“We have had the above dwelling on binder in the amount of $4,000.00 while we checked out the possibility of other insurance. We find that this policy will be necessary and have checked with our company underwriters and they advised that the policy should be made out in your name as the person insured.”

Mrs. Hoch, at the time the binder was issued, paid the first year’s premium and signed a note for the deferred premium that would be due and payable over the next two years. A mistake had been made by Campbell-Huitt in calculating the amount of premiums due, so request was made of Mrs. Hoch for payment of an additional $4.00 for the first year’s premiums and the execution of a new note covering the correct amount of deferred premium. Mrs. Hoch complied with the request and the appellant insurance company issued its policy, effective October 13, 1966, covering the three year period commencing with effective date and ending on October 13, 1969, naming Mrs. Hoch as the insured, and insuring the house against loss or damage by fire up to $4,000.00. Both the letter and the policy were introduced in evidence.

Mrs. Hoch, further testified that she and the lady in the Campbell-Huitt office discussed whether there was other insurance and that she asked the lady “to look into it, and if there was other insurance then refund my money.” She also testified that she had not heard that there might possibly be some insurance that would inure to her benefit, and that she had no reason to believe at that time that there was any other insurance.

Mr. Fred Huitt, a partner in Campbell-Huitt Insurance, was called as a witness by appellant. He testified that he was out of his office on the day that Mrs. Hoch called. His secretary told him that Mrs. Hoch wanted insurance on the house. He inspected the property and approved it for $4,000.00 fire and windstorm insurance. His secretary asked him to check his records to see if they had insurance on the house under the name of someone else. He did, but found no such insurance or coverage. He did not check with any other insurance agency in Palacios, Texas, although there were two other agencies there at that time. He further testified that he, as the agent for appellant, wrote the policy for Mrs. Hoch. When asked on direct examination for an explanation of why the “policy refers to a tenant dwelling, Mrs. Alfred Turner Estate, and then it shows ‘Insured Mrs. Nicholas Hoch’”, he said:

“This particular dwelling belonged to Mrs. Alfred Turner’s estate, and Mrs. Nicholas Hoch also had an interest in this estate, and we identified the property as Mrs. Alfred Turner’s estate and wrote the policy in the name of Mrs. Nicholas Hoch, she was the insured under this policy.”

Later, and also on direct examination, the witness Huitt further said:

“Well, this property was involved in an estate, but we believed that Mrs. Hoch *721 had an interest in this property, and so we asked — to tell you the truth, I am not sure who we asked, but some company people that came through our office, and then we talked to people on the phone, and the specific person I talked to or the specific company I talked to I wouldn’t say, but we satisfied our own knowledge that the policy should be issued in Mrs. Hoch’s name because we believed she had an interest in this property.”

The agency employee with whom Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
469 S.W.2d 717, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2471, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hanover-insurance-company-v-hoch-texapp-1971.