Maryland Casualty Co. v. First Nat. Bank of Montgomery

246 F. 892, 159 C.C.A. 164, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 1436
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedNovember 12, 1917
DocketNo. 3146
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 246 F. 892 (Maryland Casualty Co. v. First Nat. Bank of Montgomery) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 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. First Nat. Bank of Montgomery, 246 F. 892, 159 C.C.A. 164, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 1436 (5th Cir. 1917).

Opinions

WANKER, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). [1] The trial court decided that the instruments executed by the defendant made it liable to the extent of $7,500 for losses by the plaintiff caused by Campbell’s misappropriations during the period between January 10, 1907, and, April 10, 1913, those losses having been discovered after the expiration of the time within which claim could be made under the bond of the American Bonding Company of Baltimore, by which the fidelity of Campbell as bookkeeper had been insured; also to the extent of $7,500 more for losses similarly caused during the period beginning April 10, 1913, and ending January 10, 1914, these two dates being the ones stated in the schedule which was attached to the bond when it was delivered; and also to the extent of $7,500 for losses similarly caused during the period beginning January 10, 1914, the date of the renewal receipt and of the second schedule which was attached to the bond, and November 14, 1914, when Campbell ceased to be an employe of the plaintiff.

The fact that the bond and the rider attached to it bore different dates —the date of the former being March 19, 1913, and that of the latter being April 15, 1913 — is some indication that the matter for which the rider made provision was the subject of negotiation and arrangement between the parties after the plaintiff had consented for the defendant to insure the fidelity of the former’s employes and after the bond had been drawn, dated and signed, preparatory to delivery. The American Bonding Company’s bond to the plaintiff, which became effective Jan[898]*898uary 10, 1907, and renewal receipts successively attached to it, were in evidence. They show that the fidelity of Campbell as bookkeeper was insured thereby to- the extent o.f $7,500. It is quite obvious that a purpose of the rider was to prevent the plaintiff’s transfer of the fidelity insurance it carried from one insurer to another, having the effect of depriving it of protection it would have had if the change had not been made. Under the American Bonding Company’s bond a claim could not be made for a loss not discovered within six months after the determination of the obligation of the bond or a renewal of it. So the rider had the effect o.f making the defendant liable for losses which occurred while the American Bonding Company’s bond was in force, but were not discovered within six months after the transfer of the insurance to the defendant. The rider evidences the defendant’s consent, given after it had signed and dated the bond, to be liable, without addition to the premium stated in the bond, for specified undiscovered losses which had been sustained before the bond and rider became effective; but it does not manifest a consent to double the amount of the liability incurred without increasing the premium charged. We think the clause of the rider which states the obligation it evidences would have meant the same thing if its language had been as follows :

“The company hereby agrees that claim may he made for any loss or losses which the employer may, during the period between the 10th day of January, 1907, and the 10th day of April, 1913, have sustained on account of any employes who is named also in the bond of American Bonding Company of Baltimore, Maryland, ,to the employer, dated December 28, 1906, and such loss or losses are cdvered by that bond on April 10, 1913, and shall be discovered after the expiration of the time within which claim can be made under the terms thereof: Provided that the aggregate liability of the company on account of any employé shall in no event exceed the sum set opposite the name of such employé in the schedule attached to said Schedule Bond No. 34455.’’

It is manifest that the concluding clause of that paragraph as it is found in the rider was a part of the proviso which qualified the previously expressed agreement of the defendant to be liable for losses which had occurred during a period not covered by the bond, and that it was not intended as a statement of the amount of such losses for which the defendant was to be liable. By the terms of the bond the defendant was not to be liable for any loss occurring before noon on the 10th day of April, 1913. The rider was added to make it liable for specified losses which had occurred prior to that date. The amount of liability incurred was stated in a part of the bond which the rider did not purport to affect. Instead of the rider manifesting an intention to increase that amount, we think the concluding clause of its contrac-ing paragraph distinctly negatives the existence of such intention. The conclusion is that the expression “aggregate liability,” as used in the rider, meant the liability created by the bond and the rider, taken together, and was not meant to be a statement of the amount of loss or losses insured against by the rider; the amount of insurance contracted for being a matter covered by a part of the bond which remained unmodified by the rider.

[2] The contract made by the delivery and acceptance of the policy with the rider attached stated in the body of it the date of the [899]*899commencement of the period within which the losses insured against must occur or have occurred. The policy recited that its consideration was “a premium, payable in advance, based upon an annual rate per hundred dollars of suretyship,” and attached fi> and made a part, of it was a schedule, which, so far as it is material in this case, is set out above. The language of that schedule, considered, as it must be, in connection with the body of the instrument of which it was a part, makes it plain that the fidelity of Campbell was for a period ending January 10, 1914, insured as provided in the body of the bond to the amount of $7,500, and that it was for that insurance that $14.06, the amount of the premium set opposite his name, was paid. The policy did not, either conditionally or unconditionally, entitle the insured to, nor obligate the insurer to grant, indemnity for any loss or losses occurring after January 10, 1914. The extent of the defendant’s liability under its contract, which became effective on the 10th day of April, 1913, was, subject to a compliance with conditions stated, to pay specified losses, not exceeding the amounts stated, occurring during a period which ended on January 10, 1914. For subsequently occurring losses that contract made no provision whatever. Payment of previously incurred losses would be a complete satisfaction of the liability imposed upon the defendant by its original contract. That contract was what is known in the insurance business as a “term policy,” under which the insurance contracted for covers only losses occurring before the expiration of the stated term. Further action of the parties, having the effect of creating a new contract, was required to make the defendant liable for any loss or losses occurring after January 10, 1914. .Such further action, if taken, would not, in the absence of a stipulation to that effect, either increase or diminish the amount for which the insurer, under its original contract, had already become liable in consequence of losses incurred during the period covered by that contract, though such losses had not been discovered when a new contract was made having the effect of insuring against losses occurring in a later period. Florida Cent. & P. R. Co. v. American Surety Co., 99 Fed. 674, 41 C. C. A. 45; United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Williams, 96 Miss. 10, 49 South. 742; Commercial Bank v. American Bonding Co., 194 Mo. App. 224, 187 S. W. 99; Rosenplanter v. Provident Sav. Life Assur. Soc., 96 Fed. 721, 37 C. C. A. 566, 46 L. R. A. 473.

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Bluebook (online)
246 F. 892, 159 C.C.A. 164, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 1436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryland-casualty-co-v-first-nat-bank-of-montgomery-ca5-1917.