In re Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America

594 S.W.2d 705, 1980 Tenn. LEXIS 420
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 594 S.W.2d 705 (In re Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America, 594 S.W.2d 705, 1980 Tenn. LEXIS 420 (Tenn. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

HARBISON, Justice.

This cause was instituted by a show-cause order issued by the judges of the Criminal Court of Davidson County, Tennessee. The only such order contained in the record was addressed to an individual, Mr. Chris Hood, directing him to appear before the judges to show cause why his privilege to act as a professional bail bondsman should not be suspended or revoked. Later, according to an order filed in the record after the case had reached the appellate courts, Mr. Hood voluntarily surrendered such privileges.

Apparently at the same time similar show-cause orders must have been issued to two other entities, since the remainder of the record on appeal refers to them and there is little further reference to Mr. Hood. One of these entities was Jefferson Bonding Company, a Tennessee corporation, qualified to write bonds as a professional bondsman in the Davidson County Criminal Courts pursuant to T.C.A. §§ 40-1401 to 1416. Mr. Hood was vice president of this company. Its president and sole stockholder was Carroll Stewart, a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. His is the only testimony included in the record on appeal. After this case reached the appellate courts, Jefferson Bonding Company also voluntarily surrendered its privileges as a bondsman. Accordingly, further note need not be taken of Mr. Hood or of Jefferson Bonding Company, except as may be incidentally required in disposing of the remaining issues. The other respondent to a show-cause order was Stuyvesant Insurance Company, a guaranty company qualified as a professional bail bondsman under the foregoing statutes and also under T.C.A. §§ 56-1401 to 1415 governing fidelity and bonding companies and providing for their regulation by the Commissioner of Insurance.

An evidentiary hearing was held before the three Criminal Court judges sitting en banc on October 16, 1978. At the conclusion of the hearing both respondents Jefferson Bonding Company and Stuyvesant Insurance Company were directed to file in evidence the total amount of outstanding bonds which they had in force in Davidson County. Presumably this information was subsequently filed, although it is not included in the record on appeal. Likewise omitted are other exhibits which were introduced into and received in evidence at the en banc hearing, these being a complete financial statement of Stuyvesant Insurance Company and a list of all bonds issued by respondents and conditional forfeitures taken against them in Shelby County, Tennessee. The reason for these omissions is not clear, but the incomplete state of the record all but forecloses appellate review of the factual conclusions stated by the judges in an order which was entered by them on November 9, 1978 — over three weeks after the evidentiary hearing.

In that order they stated:

“It appears to the Court that the property pledged by both the Jefferson Bonding Company and Stuyvesant Insurance Company is grossly inadequate to secure the large amount of bail bonds outstanding in the Criminal Court of Davidson County, Tennessee.”

The judges accordingly ordered that both respondents be prohibited from executing [707]*707further bonds for a period of sixty days or “until such time as sufficient property is pledged by both companies to satisfy the Court in the event of forfeitures they can be satisfied.” The clerk of the court was directed to compile a list of all bail bonds on which the respondents were sureties, including a list of forfeitures. The record on appeal does not include such list, if it was furnished.

Both Jefferson Bonding Company and Stuyvesant Insurance Company appealed from the order of November 9,1978, but, as noted above, Jefferson Bonding Company later surrendered its privilege to act as a bail bondsman.

As the case reached the Court of Criminal Appeals, according to the briefs filed before that court, only one issue was assigned and briefed — that is, the legal authority of the Criminal Court judges to require the posting of additional assets locally by an insurance company otherwise shown to be in good standing with the Commissioner of Insurance and to have complied with the provisions of T.C.A. §§ 56 — 1401 to 1415. In this Court, however, appellant has attempted to raise an additional issue — that is, the factual question of whether or not the evidence was sufficient to justify the findings and conclusions of the trial judges. Without a complete transcript of the evidence introduced before those judges, together with all exhibits which pertained to the issues, we are simply unable to review this question of fact. It is incumbent, of course, upon an appealing party to furnish an appellate court with a record sufficient to permit review of all issues raised on appeal. The record filed in this case was sufficient to present the legal issue. In the event of the resolution of that issue against appellant, however, the record is insufficient to warrant reversal of the trial judges on the facts, since it is apparent that they had before them evidence not included in the transcript.

The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that the judges of the Criminal Court did have legal authority to investigate the financial status of all of the respondents before them and to require the posting of additional assets locally by the insurance company before it would be permitted to continue to write bail bonds. One of the members of the Court of Criminal Appeals dissented, stating that the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate the necessity for the action taken by the trial judges. However the dissenting opinion did not note the incomplete state of the record referred to above.

After careful consideration of the record and briefs of counsel, we are of the opinion that the Court of Criminal Appeals was correct with respect to the legal issue. Pri- or to 1976 guaranty companies which had qualified with the Commissioner of Insurance and had complied with the requirements of T.C.A. §§ 56-1401 to 1415 were specifically exempted from any other requirements of the statutes governing professional bail bondsmen. Prior to 1976, T.C.A. § 40 — 1402 provided:

“None of the provisions of this chapter shall apply to insurance companies subject to inspection, regulation and control by the commissioner of insurance of the state and by such commissioner duly authorized to write bonds in this state.”

The foregoing provision was repealed, however, in 1976. By virtue of the repeal, the provisions of T.C.A. § 40-1401 to 1416 apply “to all professional bondsmen,” and by amendment these statutes were specifically made applicable “to agents of insurance companies making appearance bonds in the criminal trial or lower courts and in the Court of Criminal Appeals and Supreme Court of Tennessee.” T.C.A. § 40-1402.

Under the terms of T.C.A. § 40-1405, the judge of any court in which professional bondsmen execute criminal bonds

“. . .is empowered to inquire at any time into the solvency of any bondsman and to investigate and determine the value of his assets and extent of his liabilities . . . .” T.C.A.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In Re: Cumberland Bail Bonding
Tennessee Supreme Court, 2020
In Re: Int. Fidelity Ins. Nat. Assoc. of Bail Ins. Co.
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1999
In Re International Fidelity Insurance Co.
989 S.W.2d 726 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1998)
State v. AAA Aaron's Action Agency
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1997

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
594 S.W.2d 705, 1980 Tenn. LEXIS 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-indemnity-insurance-co-of-north-america-tenn-1980.