Hartford Fire Insurance v. Citizens' Bank

266 S.W. 675, 166 Ark. 551, 39 A.L.R. 1458, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 86
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 15, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 266 S.W. 675 (Hartford Fire Insurance v. Citizens' Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hartford Fire Insurance v. Citizens' Bank, 266 S.W. 675, 166 Ark. 551, 39 A.L.R. 1458, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 86 (Ark. 1924).

Opinion

Wood, J.

These actions were instituted in the Logan Circuit Court, February 21,1923, by the respective plaintiffs below (appellees here) against the respective defendants below (appellants here). The actions were to recover on fire insurance policies issued by each of the respective appellants in favor of one F. L. Donothan, a resident of Booneville, Arkansas. The policies covered a theater building and its equipment. ' The appellants are foreign insurance companies doing business in this State, and had an insurance agency at Booneville through which these policies were negotiated.

The property insured was destroyed by fire on January 26, 1923. On the 30th of January, 1923, Donothan, the insured, for a valuable -consideration, assigned the policies to the appellees, with the express consent of the appellants indorsed1 thereon. On the 8th or 9th of February, 1923, the terms of the policy as to notice and proof of loss were duly complied with. The amount due under the policies was payable in sixty days after proof of loss.

On February 12, 1923, an action was instituted in the district court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, by the Vitograph, Inc., against Donothan, for an alleged indebtedness on a contract in the sum of $600'. Writs of garnishment in that action were issued and served on the appellants, garnishees, to impound the proceeds of the policies in the hands of the appellants. Donothan, the defendant in the action, and at that time a citizen of Booneville, Arkansas, was served with process according to the statutes of Oklahoma. The garnishees, appellants, were likewise duly served with process in the Oklahoma action, and they answered alleging that they were not in any manner indebted to Donothan, the defendant in the action, and did not have any real estate or personal effects in their possession in which he had an interest. They denied liability to him, and further set up that the court was without jurisdiction, and that the proceeds of the insurance policies issued to Donothan were not subject to garnishment.

Thereafter, on March 24, 1923, the appellants filed their amended answers in the Oklahoma suit, in which they set up that they were liable for loss on the policies issued to Donothan, and that an action had been instituted against them by the appellees, assignees of the policies, in Arkansas, to recover said loss, and that they had on hand the proceeds of the amounts due under the policies, which they held subject to the garnishments and assignments mentioned. They alleged that, since the service of the writs of garnishment upon them, the assignees of ’the policies, the appellees herein, had brought suit in Logan County, Arkansas, to recover the' sums due under the policies, and they prayed that the appellees be required to interplead in the Oklahoma suit, to the end that “the rights of all parties may be adjudicated in this ■action, and that these garnishees be not vexed with two suits for the same debt and be compelled to pay the same twice. ’ ’

The appellees were thus made parties defendant to the Oklahoma suit, and were duly served' with process in that action under the Oklahoma law, and directed to answer within twenty days after such service. The defendant Donothan and the appellees failed to' appear and plead in the Oklahoma action, and they were adjudged by the Oklahoma court, on May 5, 1923', to be in default. The cause in.the Oklahoma court came on for trial on May 7,1923, and judgment was rendered in that'action in favor of the plaintiff, the Vitograph Incorporated Company, against the defendant Donothan, in the sum of $600, with interest, total $668.30.

The court also rendered judgment against the appellants. Against the Philadelphia company in the sum of $368.88, and the Hartford company in the sum of $645.55, an aggregate sum of $1,014.43, as the proceeds of the policies in their hands as 'garnishees, and commanded them to pay the sum of $668.30 into court, and also the sum of $72 to cover interest pending an appeal in the Oklahoma Supreme Court, amounting in the ■ aggregate to the sum of $740. The Oklahoma court, in its judgment, further. ordered that the appellees, who were interpleaded and made defendants in that action, be forever barred from any right or interest in the proceeds of the policies to the extent of the above judgmént. The appellant insurance companies duly prosecuted their appeal from the judgment of the Oklahoma district court to the Supreme Court.

At the beginning of tbe trial of this action, tbe appellants tendered the appellee in open court tbe sum of $274.13 in settlement of all claims against tbe appellants, tbe amount being tbe balance of tbe proceeds of tbe • policies in tbeir bands over and above tbe amount of tbe Oklahoma judgment. In tbeir answers in this action the appellants pleaded tbe disclaimer and interpleader statutes of Oklahoma, pursuant to which tbe Oklahoma action and proceedings were prosecuted, and also pleaded tbe judgment of tbe district court of Oklahoma in bar of tbe present action to tbe extent of that judgment.

There was testimony on behalf of tbe appellees to ¡the effect that Elkins was tbe local agent of tbe appellants at Booneville, and issued tbe policies to Donotban; that tbe property covered by tbe policies was destroyed by fire about tbe 26th of January, 1923. He consented, acting for tbe appellants, to tbe assignment of the policies by Donothan to the appellees after tbe loss occurred. A few days after the assignment of tbe policies, a man by tbe name of Kincannon came to see witness, to get him to give tbe name of tbe companies issuing tbe policies. Witness refused, and told him tbe policies bad been assigned to the appellees;

r Witness Kincannon testified that be was an attorney at law in Booneville, Arkansas; that, a few days after tbe loss covered by the policies, a man by tbe name of Myers, claiming that be represented the Vitograph Inc. Company, came to see witness. He retained witness’ services. Witness interviewed Elkins, tbe local agent of tbe appellants, to ascertain the names of tbe companies issuing tbe policies, in order to determine whether they bad made an adjustment, and witness was advised by Elkins that tbe policies bad been assigned.

' Chas. I. Evans testified that be was an attorney at law at Booneville, Arkansas, and that be bad a conversation with Myers a few days after tbe assignment of tbe policies to tbe appellees. Myers claimed to be representing tbe Vitograph Inc., and stated that be was going to garnish the insurance money belonging to Donotban. Witness told Myers that the policies had been assigned to the appellees.

It was shown by the cashiers of the respective appellees that they paid Donothan a valuable consideration for the assignment of the policies. Donothan testified that he.was a resident of Booneville, Arkansas, at the time the suit was instituted against him in Oklahoma by the Yitograph Inc. Company, and he was notified of the pendency of that suit. At that time he didn’t have any property in the State of Oklahoma.

The causes were consolidated and tried upon the above facts, before the court sitting as a jury. The court-rendered a judgment in favor of the appellees against the appellants amounting in the aggregate to the sum .of . $1,038.15', from which judgment is this appeal.

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Bluebook (online)
266 S.W. 675, 166 Ark. 551, 39 A.L.R. 1458, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartford-fire-insurance-v-citizens-bank-ark-1924.