Hicks v. British America Assurance Co.

56 N.E. 743, 162 N.Y. 284, 1900 N.Y. LEXIS 1250

• Court: New York Court of Appeals
• Decided: March 27, 1900
• Status: Published

Opinions

Parker, Ch. J.

We are agreed that the verdict of the jury establishes that on the 30th day of December, 1893, defendant’s agent Hobart had a conversation with Colonel Hicks, plaintiff’s assignor, the legal effect of which was to create a contract of present insurance in the sum of §2,500.00 upon property of Colonel Hicks, which was consumed by fire two days later. The agreement that the contract ivas one of present insurance accords Avitli the allegations of the complaint, the theory of the counsel as shown by their method of trial and the charge of the court. That position cannot be attacked from any source, for either that which Avas said operated to create a contract of present insurance, or else no contract AAras ever made binding upon the defendant. The evidence tended to show a contract to insure, and nothing else. It is not pretended that a contract of any kind between these parties was made after the conversation of December 30tli. The jury have found that the defendant’s agent said to Hicks, after a general discussion on the subject of insuring the property, “you are insured from noon on the 30th day of December, 1893, to noon of December 30th, 1894.” The legal effect of (this answer to the application for insurance made by Col. Hicks was to create a complete, binding agreement for insurance for the period named, upon which he was entitled to recover for the damages sustained by the fire had he made performance, on his part. (Ruggles v. American Central Ins. Co. of St. Louis, 114 N. Y. 415.) This contract of insurance, although verbal, embraced within it the provisions of the standard policy of fire insurance, which the legislature in its wisdom formulated for the protection of both insured and insurer. It is usual for the company to issue a policy of insurance evidencing the contract between the parties ; but the policy accomplishes nothing more than that, for when the contract is entered into between the agent and the owner, whether the binder be verbal or in writing, it includes within it the standard form of policy and the contract is a completed one. (Ruggles Case, supra; Lipman v. N. F. Ins. Co., 121 N. Y. 454; Karelsen v. Sun Fire Office, 122 N. Y. 545 ; Underwood v. Greenwich Ins. Co., 161 N. Y. 413.) In the three cases last cited the binder had been reduced to writing; but there is no distinction whatever in principle between those cases and the one at bar, t for in each there is a binding contract to insure, and necessarily according to the'only form of insurance contract authorized by the laws of this state. The law reads into the contract the standard policy, whether it be referred to in terms or not. In Lipman’s Gase (supra) Judge Andrews, in speaking of the construction to be put upon the binding slip issued in that case, said : “ The construction is, we think, the same as. though it had expressed that the present insurance was .under the terms of the usual policy of the company to be thereafter delivered.” And in Karelsen's case the court said: “ While the binding slip contained none of the conditions usually found in insurance policies, the contract evidenced by it was the ordinary policy of insurance issued by' the company. So that, in any construction of the contract, it must be regarded as though it had expressed' that the present insurance was under the terms of the usual policy of the company to be thereafter delivered.” So that all this plaintiff had to do in order to recover in this action, aside from showing a loss by fire and compliance on her part with the conditions of the contract, was to prove the making of the contract. This was accomplished by proving the conversation between her assignor and the agent; for the conversation disclosed the sum for which the property was to be insured, the amount of premiums and the period of insurance, and the statute provided for all of the other conditions of the contract of insurance. Neither party to it had the right to add to, or take from, the requirements of the legislature in that regard. The making of the contract the plaintiff proved to the satisfaction of the jury, and she did not attempt to prove anything more. This the trial court, as well as the counsel, understood, and the case was tried upon that theory. It has been discovered in this court, however, that the judgment against the defendant cannot be sustained if this action be now treated in accordance with the theory that induced its commencement and upon which it was tried, namely, that the plaintiff’s assignor made a valid contract of insurance with the defendant by virtue of which this plaintiff, as assignee, is entitled to recover to the extent provided for by the policy for the damages sustained by her through the destruction by fire of the building insured. The error which calls for a reversal of the judgment, if this be treated as an action on the contract, lies in the trial court’s charge to the jury, in effect, that, as matter of law, it was not necessary for the insured to present to the defendant proofs of loss in accordance with the requirements of the standard policy.- To avoid this result it is proposed in the dissenting opinions not only to set at naught the many decisions of this court, holding that on an appeal a case must be disposed of upon the theory upon which it was tried (Snider v. Snider, 160 N. Y. 151; Stephens v. Meriden Britannia Co., 160 N. Y. 178; People ex rel. Warschauer v. Dalton, 159 N. Y. 235; Drucker v. Manhattan Ry. Co., 106 N. Y. 157; Baird v. Mayor, etc., 96 N. Y. 567), but, also, to decide that growing out of this contract the plaintiff had another cause of action, the maintenance of which did not require the service of proofs of loss. Hence, it is claimed that, by treating the case as having been tried upon that theory, the court may avoid reversing the judgment, for in such a case it would have been unnecessary to charge that the service of proofs of loss was essential to recovery. This newly-discovered cause of action is said to spring out of the promise made at the time the contract was entered into, that the defendant would deliver to the insured evidence of the contract in the shape of a policy of insurance. The contract was completed at' the moment the agent said, “ you are insured from noon on the 30th day of December, 1893, to noon on the 30th day of December, 1894 ” (Ruggles v. Amer. C. Ins. Co., supra), and it is agreed by every member of this court that the defendant is liable to the plaintiff on the contract thus made in the full amount of the policy, if the damage was sustained in the manner referred to in the policy, and plaintiff performed the conditions imposed upon him by it. But it is said that he may recover either on the contract, or, instead, if he elects, on the ground that 'the defendant failed to deliver to him written evidence of the contract, i. e., a policy of insurance.

If the ease were one where the written evidence of the contract had to come into the possession of the plaintiff before recovery could be had thereon, then it is true that an action in equity might be brought, praying for a delivery of the policy that the defendant withheld, and further demanding that upon the policy delivered in pursuance of the decree the plaintiff should have judgment in the amount specified in the policy for her damages by fire, and even then the plaintiff would have to abide by the terms of the policy, delivery of which the judgment should decree. But that is not this case at all. To enable her to recover it was not necessary for this plaintiff to have physical possession of the policy which the agent promised to give her assignor. (Ruggles Case, supra.) Her action was not founded upon a policy, but upon the contract of insurance made upon the 30th day of December, which, as both parties agreed, was to begin at noon on that day, no matter when the policy, which the parties intended should furnish evidence of the contract, should be delivered. The action was brought, tried and decided upon that theory, and no one disputes that the judgment could in this court stand upon that theory had the trial court charged the jury correctly in relation to the necessity of serving proofs of loss. It is apparent, therefore, that the plaintiff sustained no damage by reason of the defendant’s failure to furnish her assignor with written evidence of the contract. Had the promise been kept, the plaintiff might not have been obliged to call her assignor to prove the contract, thus subjecting him, as it turned out, to be confronted with impeaching testimony; but neither the plaintiff nor her assignor was otherwise damaged, for he found no difficulty in proving a contract to the satisfaction of the jury. The possession of the promised policy, therefore, would have been a convenience possibly, but nothing more.

Plainly, therefore, it is not true that the plaintiff suffered damage in the amount of the contract of insurance by reason of the failure of the defendant to deliver a policy reciting the terms of the contract entered into, and hence the judgment cannot be affirmed on the ground that the plaintiff sustained damages in the sum of $2,500.00, because the defendant omitted to deliver a policy. Hor do I think that a sound public policy would sanction the creation of such a precedent even if a legal principle could be' found upon which to rest it.

The legislature of the state of Hew York has prescribed a standard form of policy for the protection of both insurer and insured. It contains provisions specially protecting the insured from harsh methods by insurance companies. On the other hand, it provides that which experience has shown to be necessary in order to protect insurance companies from being victimized through fraud, and among the conditions which the legislature in its wisdom has caused to be incorporated into the standard policy is one making it necessary that the insurer shall have immediate notice of the facts and circumstances of the fire; another that within sixty days the owner shall present proofs of loss, duly verified, in which shall be stated the circumstances of the -fire and the value of the property destroyed and various other things which it is deemed important that insurance companies should know before being called upon to adjust a ldss; still another provides that no local agent shall have the power to waive any of these written conditions, except by a writing. It is unnecessary to present the reasons which induced the legislature to require these conditions precedent to a recovery upon a policy of insurance; it is sufficient for our purpose that the legislature declared that it should be so, and we should see to it that the general trend of our decisions is towards the enforcement of the legislative command instead of its nullification. This plaintiff had the right, as it is conceded on all hands, to recover on the contract of insurance which her assignor made with the defendant’s agent, whether a policy was subsequently delivered to him or not; but as the standard policy was necessarily a part of the contract, he should be required to comply with the conditions of that policy and give notice of the facts and circumstances of the fire and present proofs of loss duly verified. The view taken by some of my brethren, however, is that it was unnecessary to give notice of the fire and present proofs of loss within sixty days, or at any other time, because, it is said, such an action need not be treated as on a contract of insurance, but on a contract to give a policy, which has not been carried out, and, therefore, prior to beginning suit, which may be done at any time within six years instead of one year, as provided in the standard policy, the insured has nothing whatever to do when he sustains a loss by fire but lie by until, as in this case, several months have passed, or, in some other case, until years have gone by, without giving the company notice of the fire or any proofs of loss whatever; he may then bring a suit claiming that two days, or less or .more, before the fire, the defendant’s local agent, without receiving any premium, agreed to, but did not, issue a policy, for which defendant is liable to plaintiff in the amount of the sum for which it was agreed that the policy should issue. If such a procedure should be sanctioned by this court, then might an insurance company be mulcted in damages without having had an opportunity to investigate promptly the origin of the fire and the value of the thing destroyed, and thus would the door be opened wide for the perpetration of fraud.

It is said that if the foregoing argument seems not to be defective upon its mere reading, it is nevertheless so because it leaves out of consideration the decisions of this court in Eilis v. Albany City Fire Insurance Co., (50 N. Y. 402); Angell v. Hartford Fire Insurance Co. (59 N. Y. 171); Van Loan v. Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Assn. (90 N. Y. 280). But the situation which those cases were designed to meet no longer exists. During the period of time in which they and others were decided, and down to the year 1886, each insurance company was at liberty to insert such provisions in the policy of insurance issued by it as it deemed best. The result was that there was no uniformity in policies of insurance, and when loss by fire occurred, prior to a delivery of the policy, it became necessary for the assured to secure possession of the policy, either by its voluntary delivery to him by the officers of the company, or in pursuance of a decree in a suit in equity for specific performance; thereon he could found a judgment for the damages sustained by the fire, or he was allowed to recover the damages sustained for a breach of the contract, which was treated as a contract for the delivery of a policy. The last one of the cases cited was decided in 1882; four years later the legislature, by chapter 488 of the Laws of 1886, enacted and provided for a uniform policy of fire insurance, to be made and issued in this state, by all insurance companies taking fire risks on property within this state, to be known and designated as the “ Standard Hire Insurance Policy of the State of Hew York.” Upon the passage of this important legislation the policy of insurance was no longer of special moment except as evidence that a contract to insure had been made; for it. was no longer competent for the parties to incorporate into the policy any provisions whatever, outside of those embraced within the terms of the standard policy, and thereafter the contract to insure was by common consent of the profession and the courts scientifically treated as a contract of insurance, and not, as formerly, a contract to issue a policy, as an examination of the authorities in this court from the Ruggles case down will show.

It is suggested that an affirmance of the judgment might also be placed on the ground that while the action was brought upon the contract of insurance, it was made to appear upon the trial that the defendant by its conduct waived service of proofs of loss and, hence, that it was not error for the court to charge in effect that the plaintiff could recover without showing that she had complied with the terms of the contract in that respect. If the defendant had by its conduct rendered unnecessary the service of proofs of loss the contention would, , of course, be well founded. But it had to do something in order to lose the benefit of the stipulations in its contract. At the outset it should be said that the defendant or its officers never did anything whatever until after this action was commenced. Heither the plaintiff nor her assignor, so far as this record discloses, ever addressed any letter or other communication to the defendant or any of its officers prior to the commencement of this action. What then is the alleged waiver founded upon 3 Why upon the action of the local agent who made the contract of insurance in denying that he ever made such a contract. An unstable and worthless foundation surely in view of the fact that under the standard policy an agent is without power to waive any of the conditions, as this court has time and again held. (Van Allen v. Farmers' Joint Stock Ins. Co., 64 N. Y. 469 ; Quinlan v. Providence Washington Ins. Co., 133 N. Y. 356 ; Bush v. Westchester Fire Ins. Co., 63 N. Y. 531; De Grove v. Metropolitan Ins. Co., 61 N. Y. 594.) While it is conceded that the local agent had no power in such a case to waive the condition regarding proofs of loss, yet it is contended that he did in fact waive it by omitting to deliver the policy when called for by the owner of the building after the fire, and by denying that he had ever made a contract to insure. Stating the contention in other words, it is that if the agent had tried to waive the conditions of the policy and had promised to do so, he could not have accom.plished it, but that by omitting either to do or to say a particular thing he did waive the condition,' which is to say that an express waiver would not be effectual, but an implied one would.

As the statement of the proposition seems to furnish the answer to it, I pass on to such of the defendant’s acts as are relied upon to constitute a waiver. It is not pretended that prior to the commencement of this action the plaintiff or her assignor ever notified the defendant company that she claimed that the company had insured the burned building, so there is nothing before action brought upon which to base a claim that the defendant waived proofs of loss. But it is said that when the suit was brought and the defendant by its answer denied the allegations of the complaint, it in some way made good the attempted waiver of the agent, although it was absolutely void before. The answer is that if the plaintiff had not a complete cause of action against the defendant when the summons was served, no obstacles have been removed from her path by the denials in the defendant’s answer of the allegations of her complaint. If a party has not a good cause of action before commencing suit, it is safe to say that he will not get one by an answer of the defendant which contents itself with denying the existence of .the facts alleged in the complaint. It is plain, therefore, that the plaintiff is without a basis for* a recovery upon this cause of action, if a new trial be granted, because neither she nor her father, the assignor, have presented to the defendant any proofs of loss, nor was service of proofs of loss waived by the defendant; and while such a result may or may not be in the interest of justice, in this particular case there 'can be no doubt that the measure of injustice done, if any, will be far less than would necessarily ensue from a decision putting a premium upon insurance obtained without a policy, by making it possible to recover for the damages sustained through a fire, by an action commenced at any time before the six years’ Statute of Limitations shall have run, and that too without giving the company notice of the fire or serving it with proofs of the loss, thereby preventing it from being able -to inquire about the facts and circumstances attending the fire until months or years after the happening of it. This would in many cases effectually prevent the company from acquiring any information whatever.

It follows, if the views expressed be sound, that the action is upon a contract of insurance and not one for damages resulting from a failure to deliver a policy, and, hence, that proofs of loss were necessary in the absence of a waiver thereof by the defendant, of which there is no proof, and the failure to so charge was error, calling for a reversal of the judgment.

The judgment should be reversed.