Liberty National Insurance Company, Appellant-Cross-Appellee v. Reinsurance Agency, Inc., Appellee-Cross-Appellant

307 F.2d 164
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 1, 1962
Docket16829_1
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 307 F.2d 164 (Liberty National Insurance Company, Appellant-Cross-Appellee v. Reinsurance Agency, Inc., Appellee-Cross-Appellant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Liberty National Insurance Company, Appellant-Cross-Appellee v. Reinsurance Agency, Inc., Appellee-Cross-Appellant, 307 F.2d 164 (9th Cir. 1962).

Opinions

[165]*165BOWEN, District Judge.

This is a diversity of citizenship case. Appellant Liberty National Insurance Company, the defendant in the Trial Court, is a citizen of Idaho, and appellee Reinsurance Agency, Inc., the plaintiff in the Trial Court, is a citizen of Illinois. A sum in excess of $10,000 exclusive of interest and costs is involved. The Trial Court under § 1332, Title 28 U.S.C., had, and this Court under § 1291, id., has jurisdiction.

This appeal involves incidents of the rehabilitation of appellant insurance company. The main issue here is whether the appellant’s rehabilitator, who on September 24, 1956 was appointed and ordered by the Idaho State Court to take control of appellant’s insurance business and remove the causes which made rehabilitation necessary, effectively can-celled the September 1, 1955 contract of appellant to pay appellee insurance brokerage commissions.

Appellant entered into by that contract a written agreement dated September 1, 1955, in return for appellee’s assistance in obtaining for appellant the insurance business involved, to pay monthly to ap-pellee a 5% commission on all money remitted to appellant by appellant’s agent respecting the agent’s automobile insurance business in Germany of which appellant desired to become the insurer. There were paid for the period before September 1956 all such contracted commissions including the October 19, 1956 payment of $1,780.19 on the August 1956 commission account, which payment, however, the Trial Court held was unauthorized, as more fully appears below. No other such payments were made under the commissions contract to appel-lee from September 1, 1956 up to the time of trial.

Pursuant to an official examination of the business affairs of appellant, the Idaho State Department of Insurance found and reported to a proper Idaho State Court in effect that appellant was in serious financial difficulty and had understated its claims liability several hundred thousand dollars, that its surplus was completely wiped out, and that its capital was seriously impaired. Thereupon the State Court of Idaho, upon application of that State’s Insurance Commissioner, entered that Court’s order of September 24, 1956 under the provisions of Idaho Code, Sections 41-101, 41-3504 and 41-3505,1 directing the Commissioner to take control of the appellant company, its business and all its assets and to conduct all business of appellant and to take action, subject to court direction, for removal of the causes and conditions which made rehabilitation of the company necessary. The order further appointed the Commissioner as rehabilitator who, through his deputy as acting rehabilitator, proceeded with the required rehabilitation.

Thereafter the rehabilitator cancelled, reduced or adjusted the commission payments of about 75% to 80% of all the commission contracts in force when the rehabilitator took control including the above mentioned September 1, 1955 agreement of appellant to pay appellee the 5% commission, which was cancelled by the rehabilitator, but which cancellation was found ineffective by the Trial Court because the rehabilitator continued to receive remittances from appellant’s agent respecting the German business. Also, the rehabilitator took control of all the capital stock of appellant, sold some of it to new stockholders and supervised the replacement of the old with new corporate officials. The re-habilitator also reduced and adjusted appellant’s payments and allowances to its agent for the German business. All of these acts of the rehabilitator were approved upon review by the State Court, and rehabilitation was terminated and the rehabilitated business and assets were returned to appellant on May 28, 1957. Neither the appellant itself nor its business or assets had been liquidated during rehabilitation.

[166]*166Appellee was during rehabilitation given notice of the cancellation of the 5% commission contract and was reminded by the rehabilitator of appellee’s right to file claim or make objection in 'State Court on account of such cancellation, but appellee failed to do that. Instead, after termination of the rehabilitation and the return to appellant of its rehabilitated business and assets, appel-lee refused to recognize cancellation and brought this action in the United States District Court of Idaho seeking, under the rehabilitator-cancelled contract, recovery of $38,568.00 for the unpaid 5% commissions on all premiums received by appellant from appellant’s agent for German business from September 1, 1956 and during all the rehabilitation period and for the entire subsequent period up to the time of trial.

Appellant in its answer in the Trial Court denied liability, and, among other things, pleaded nullification of the September 1, 1955 commissions contract by the rehabilitation proceedings and by the rehabilitator’s cancellation of the contract, pleaded further that appellee was estopped in this action to repudiate the rehabilitator’s cancellation of the contract and the State Court’s approval of such cancellation, and sought recovery of the $1,780.19 commissions paid without authorization to appellee during rehabilitation.

The Trial Court entered judgment upholding validity of the commissions contract and awarded judgment to appellee against appellant for the 5% commissions on all premiums paid during the months following termination of rehabilitation beginning with June 1957 and continuing through May 1959, the last full month up to the time of trial, less the $1,780.19 unauthorized payment of October 19, 1956, in the remaining sum of $22,335.91, plus Trial Court costs of $1,032.50, but denied appellee any recovery of such commissions on any premiums paid by appellant’s agent during the period of rehabilitation because the State Court’s injunction had forbidden the payment of the commissions during rehabilitation.

Except as to that credit of the $1,780.-19 unauthorized payment on the total amount found due appellee from appellant, the Trial Court refused to grant any and all other relief requested by appellant.

Each party, as to the part of the Trial Court’s judgment adverse to it, appeals to this Court.

Appellant’s principal contention is in effect that, under the applicable Idaho law, like similar laws in other states, rehabilitation proceedings are not debtor-creditor proceedings involving primarily the rights and duties of creditors and debtors, but that rehabilitation proceedings are intended to uphold and enforce the public interest, welfare and policy which require that insurance companies not engage in unbusinesslike, extravagant and wasteful practices impairing or likely to impair the solvency, integrity and business reputation of those like appellant who for business purposes contract to insure policyholders against loss from insurable risks, that appellee is not entitled to recover anything in this case, and that appellant should be allowed recovery of the $1,780.19 paid improperly during rehabilitation to appellee.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
307 F.2d 164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-national-insurance-company-appellant-cross-appellee-v-reinsurance-ca9-1962.