Maryland Casualty Co. v. Cole

158 S.E. 873, 156 Va. 707, 1931 Va. LEXIS 226
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 18, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 158 S.E. 873 (Maryland Casualty Co. v. Cole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maryland Casualty Co. v. Cole, 158 S.E. 873, 156 Va. 707, 1931 Va. LEXIS 226 (Va. 1931).

Opinion

Prentis, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

R. A. Cole made a motion for judgment against the Maryland Casualty Company to recover the amount of a judgment for damages for personal injuries which one Alton Cain had recovered against a co-partnership, consisting of R. A. Cole and T. B. Rawls, trading as Cole & Rawls, his employers. He alleged that it was the duty of the company, under the terms of its policy, hereinafter described, to have defended the action of Cain against Cole & Rawls. In support of his motion, Cole introduced the record in the case of Cain v. Cole & Rawls, the co-partnership. The company denied all liability upon its policy. There was a judgment in favor of Cole.

These are the facts shown: The Maryland Casualty Company, on April 25, 1928, issued to R. A. Cole, a hauling contractor, through an agent of the company at Wilmington, N. C., a policy covering Cole’s several trucks, described therein, for one year, April 25, 1928, to April 25, 1929. The policy covers public liability—that is, insurance against'legal liability for bodily injuries or death of persons other than his employees—for which he paid a stated premium of $122.40, and also covered property damage to- persons other than his employees, for which he paid a premium of $126.00. By the terms- of'an endorsement attached thereto, in consideration of a premium of $36.00, he was given insurance against legal liability to his employees engaged in the operation of any of the trucks described in the policy. One of the statements upon the basis of which the policy was issued is that the trucks were to be “principally maintained, garaged and used” at Bladen[711]*711boro, N. C. Another of the statements upon which the policy was issued is that “all automobiles covered hereby are exclusively owned by the named assured,” and R. A. Cole is named as the individual who is thereby assured. The policy expressly excludes all obligations assumed by or imposed upon the assured by any workmen’s compensation law or plan.

After the policy had been in effect more than six months— that is, in December, 1928—the assured, Cole, who had before that time operated only in North Carolina, suspended all of his business there and moved all of his trucks and equipment to Norfolk county, Virginia, where they were used in the business of a hauling contractor until the summer of 1929.

On February 5, 1929, Alton Cain, one of the employees of Cole & Rawls, was injured while operating one of these trucks, and thereafter recovered a judgment'against this co-partnership for the sum of $1,600.00 damages for his personal injuries.

While there was no workmen’s compensation law in effect in North Carolina at the time the policy was issued, or at the time of the injury, the Virginia workmen’s compensation law (Code 1924, sections 1887 [1 ] to 1887 [85 3) was in effect at the time of the injury in Norfolk county.

The basis of this action is the failure of the Maryland Casualty Company to defend that suit of Cain against Cole & Rawls; and to pay the judgment entered therein. There is no claim that at the time the policy was written the agent of the insurance company was notified that the assured would or might move to Virginia, and no consent of the insurance company was obtained for the removal of the trucks to Virginia. The record does show that the North Carolina agent of the company who wrote the policy knew before the injuries to Cain that Cole had moved his trucks to Virginia. The North Carolina workmen’s compensation law did not become effective until July 1, 1929, more than a year after the policy had been written, and about five months after the injuries to Cain. [712]*712The testimony for the company shows that it would not have written a policy covering such an injury to one of the employees of the assured other than the standard workmen’s compensation policy, and it is clearly shown that the plaintiff only paid a premium of $36.00 for employer’s liability—that is, common-law liability of an employer to an employee—and that at the date of the policy the premium in Virginia would have been $278.00, due to the difference in the risk assumed in the two- States, the Virginia workmen’s compensation law then being effective in’Virginia.

A jury wasi waived, all matters of law and fact were submitted to the court upon certain exhibits, stipulations and the transcript of the testimony taken at a former trial of this case.

This statement shows the method by which the trial court reached the conclusion that the plaintiff was entitled to recover $1,458.00 of the company:

“Amount of the judgment of Cain v. Cole & Rawls.........................$1,600.00
“Amount of attorney’s fee paid by Cole for defending the above suit.......... 100.00
-$1,700.00
“Less the difference between:
“The premium which defendant company would have charged Cole on a workmen’s compensation policy in Virginia, and .............................$ 278.00
“The amount paid by Cole for employers’ liability coverage in North Carolina... 36.00
- 242.00
“Net amount of judgment rendered for plaintiff. .$1,458.00”

The company moved the court to set aside the judgment and to enter final judgment for the defendant, upon the ground [713]*713that it was contrary to the law and the evidence and without evidence to support it. The error assigned is based upon the refusal of the court to- sustain either of these motions.

The record shows that the plaintiff, Cole, sought first to recover in an action instituted by him in the Court of Law and Chancery of the city of Norfolk. That action, it is stated in the petition, was heard in that court upon the same record as was presented in the Circuit Court of Norfolk county, except as to the stipulation of counsel and certain letters thereto attached, and that at the conclusion of the evidence in that court the trial judge (Hon. Richard Mcllwaine) sustained the defendant’s motion to strike out all of the plaintiff’s evidence, on the ground that there was no liability on the defendant company, whereupon plaintiff took a non-suit and brought- the pending action. The learned attorney for the plaintiff, Cole, shows that there is nothing in this record as to Judge Mc-Ilwaine’s ruling, and contends that had the additional evidence, which is in this record, been presented to Judge Mcllwaine, his ruling would have been different.

Though outside of this record, we may remark in passing that by many it has long been considered a great public evil that litigants can prosecute their cases to the point when they are met with an adverse ruling which determines the case against them, and thereupon can in that action take a non-suit and thereafter institute another action and litigate the same questions again- in another court of concurrent jurisdiction. That litigation can be so prolonged where there are courts of concurrent jurisdiction in the cities of the State, imposes an undue hardship- upon one of the litigants- is apparent, and we venture the view that it should be forbidden by statute.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
158 S.E. 873, 156 Va. 707, 1931 Va. LEXIS 226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryland-casualty-co-v-cole-va-1931.