National Surety Corp. v. Nulton

55 Pa. D. & C. 149, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 187
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Beaver County
DecidedJune 5, 1945
Docketno. 137
StatusPublished

This text of 55 Pa. D. & C. 149 (National Surety Corp. v. Nulton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Beaver County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Surety Corp. v. Nulton, 55 Pa. D. & C. 149, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 187 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1945).

Opinion

McCreary, J.,

On August 2, 1944, National Surety Corporation, plaintiff, issued a summons in assumpsit to recover from defendant, James H. Nulton, the sum of $2,317.75 with interest thereon from May 22, 1939.

In the statement of claim filed the plaintiff, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York, and duly authorized and licensed to do business in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, claims that on January 19, 1939, it issued its Fidelity Schedule Bond no. 230008 to Goldsmit-Black, Inc., and affiliated companies, effective as of January 1, 1939. It alleges that among the affiliated companies is included Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, and that under the fidelity schedule bond, a copy of which is attached to the statement of claim, plaintiff agreed to indemnify Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, against any direct loss of money or other personal property belonging to the insured, Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, or for which the insured is legally liable, caused by larceny, embezzlement, forgery, misappropriation, wrongful abstraction, or any other fraudulent or dishonest act or [151]*151acts committed by any of the insured’s employes while covered under said bond. It further sets forth that James H. Nulton, defendant, was an employe of the said Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, in the capacity of office manager from February 1, 1937, to the date of his discharge February 10, 1939. It further alleged that from February 1,1937, to February 10, 1939, defendant had sole and complete charge of the office of Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, and that the duties of said defendant included the custody and care of all money paid into said office by employes, salesmen and customers of Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, and the keeping of true and accurate records of such moneys, the entering of all accounts in books furnished to defendant, of which books defendant had exclusive charge, and the payment of all moneys collected by defendant to Goldsmit-Black, Inc. It further claims that on February 10, 1939, defendant was discharged by his employer, Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, and that an audit was made of the books kept exclusively by defendant, in which books defendant should have entered all items usually entered in similar books of account, and that the audit revealed a shortage in the account of defendant in the amount of $2,322.19, and that all of the deficiencies occurred between January 3, 1939, and February 10,1939, while defendant was an employe of Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona. It also sets forth that Goldsmit-Black, Inc., the insured, made demand upon plaintiff, under the bond, for the sum of $2,322.19, and accepted from the plaintiff, in full settlement of its claim, the sum of $2,317.75, which sum plaintiff paid to Goldsmit-Black, Ine., of Altoona, by check dated May 22, 1939. Finally, plaintiff alleges that it made its first demand for payment from defendant on February 28, 1939, and that defendant repeatedly promised to make payment, but that he had not made payment up to the time of the filing of this suit; [152]*152that defendant has no set-off or counterclaim to its demand, and claims there is now justly due, owing and payable by defendant to plaintiff $2,317.75 with interest from May 22, 1939.

On August 18, 1944, defendant filed an affidavit of defense raising questions of law, and asked that the suit be dismissed at the cost of plaintiff for the following reasons:

“(a) That any payment made by plaintiff to the said Goldsmit-Black, Inc., was done by plaintiff as a volunteer.
“(b) Plaintiff is not a surety or guarantor for defendant, but was an indemnitor or insurer for the Goldsmit-Black, Inc.
“(c) Defendant was not a party to the contract nor was there any consideration existing between him and plaintiff for said contract of indemnity.
“(d) There is no legal or equitable subrogation by plaintiff to the rights and remedies of the said Goldsmit-Black, Inc.
(e) Defendant is not charged with the commission of any of the criminal acts covered by said indemnity bond or insurance.
“(f) Plaintiff has no legal right of action against defendant.”

The only contention of defendant which has any merit is the one labeled “ (e) ” above, wherein defendant alleges that the statement of claim fails to charge defendant with the commission of any of the criminal acts covered by the bond. We are of the opinion that plaintiff must allege in its statement of claim that defendant caused a direct loss of money to GoldsmitBlack, Inc., of Altoona, by either larceny, embezzlement, forgery, misappropriation, wrongful abstraction, or some other fraudulent or dishonest act or acts. If the audit of the books of Goldsmit-Black, Inc., of Altoona, for a period from January 1, 1939, to February 19, 1939, revealed a shortage not attributable [153]*153to larceny, embezzlement, forgery, misappropriation, wrongful abstraction, or other fraudulent or dishonest act or acts committed by defendant, plaintiff was under no obligation to pay anything to GoldsmitBlack, Inc., of Altoona, and its act of paying the sum of $2,317.75 to Goldsmit-Blaek, Inc., would be the act of a volunteer and defendant would be under no obligation to repay the money to plaintiff. Since this defect in the pleading is amendable, we will give plaintiff 15 days from the date of the order hereinafter made within which to amend its pleading.

The first question of law raised by defendant is that “any payment made by plaintiff to Goldsmit-Black, Inc., was done by plaintiff as a volunteer”. This is not so. If the shortage in defendant’s accounts was the result of larceny, embezzlement, forgery, misappropriation, wrongful abstraction, or other fraudulent or dishonest act or acts on the part of the defendant, plaintiff was obliged to pay the creditor and became entitled to reimbursement under the doctrine that “Where a surety who has undertaken his obligation without the consent of the principal makes a payment or otherwise performs on account of the principal, it is the duty of the principal to reimburse the surety to the extent that the principal has been unjustly enriched” : §104 (2), chap. 4, A. L. I. Restatement of the Law of Security.

The principal is enriched whenever his debt is satisfied as the result of a payment by another; he is not unjustly enriched if the payment is made by a volunteer, that is, one who makes the payment otherwise than in discharge of his own duty. A surety who contracts with a creditor without the consent of the principal is not a volunteer. A creditor is entitled to obtain the additional security afforded by a surety. The payment by the surety in satisfaction of his own obligation, which has the effect of discharging the principal, is an unjust enrichment of the principal. He must, there[154]*154fore, reimburse the surety to the extent of the enrichment: Restatement of the Law of Restitution, par. 76 and 80. Pennsylvania follows the Restatement in the matter of the law of unjust enrichment; Gladowski et al. v. Felczak et ah, 346 Pa. 660.

As between plaintiff and Goldsmit-Black, Inc., there is no doubt about the fact that plaintiff is an insurer (South Philadelphia State Bank v. National Surety Company, 288 Pa. 300), but under the definition of suretyship, as set forth in A. L. I.

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31 A.2d 718 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1943)
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Slack v. Kirk
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61 Pa. Super. 339 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 Pa. D. & C. 149, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-surety-corp-v-nulton-pactcomplbeaver-1945.