Robinson v. Home Fire & Marine Insurance

59 N.W.2d 776, 244 Iowa 1084, 1953 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 368
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 17, 1953
Docket48284
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 59 N.W.2d 776 (Robinson v. Home Fire & Marine Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robinson v. Home Fire & Marine Insurance, 59 N.W.2d 776, 244 Iowa 1084, 1953 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 368 (iowa 1953).

Opinion

Garfield, J.

This is a law action for damages for two separate defamatory statements. Both alleged statements followed a fire in October 1949 which damaged plaintiff’s home, insured by defendant-company. Defendant claimed plaintiff set the house on fire. Plaintiff’s husband died from burns received in the fire. Plaintiff sued defendant on the insurance policies and recovered the full amount of insurance notwithstanding the defense she set the fire. Clifton Davis had lived in plaintiff’s home until about a year before the fire.

Division III of plaintiff’s amended petition alleges this slanderous statement was made in the presence of Clifton Davis and others unknown to plaintiff by the deputy fire marshal of the state of Arkansas, then acting as .an agent of defendant-company: “You know Graeie Lee Robinson set the fire that *1088 burned up her husband and burned the house. Why don’t you tell us about it? We have the goods on her and we know you know it, so you might as well tell us how she set the fire.”

Division IV of plaintiff’s amended petition alleges that about March 20, 1950, an attorney for defendant, when interviewing Clifton Davis as a prospective witness in the action then pending on the insurance policies, said before Davis and others unknown to plaintiff: “Clifton, you are still going to testify Graeie Lee Robinson set the fire that damaged th'e house and burned up her husband aren’t you? You know Graeie Lee Robinson did set the fire and burned up her husband and I am sure you want to tell the jury about it.”

Davis, principal witness for plaintiff upon the trial, testified the deputy fire marshal and the attorney each made about the same statement the petition alleges. The testimony as to what the deputy said was excluded on the ground there was no competent evidence he was defendant’s agent. This ruling presents the first matter for our consideration. A verdict was directed against plaintiff on Division III of her petition on the same ground and another ground we need not consider.

A verdict was directed against plaintiff on Division IV of her petition principally on the ground the alleged statement by defendant’s attorney to a prospective witness in the action on the insurance policies was at least qualifiedly privileged and such privilege was not exceeded since the statement was not made to persons other than Davis and there was no evidence of malice.

The pleadings in this case were before us upon a prior appeal (242 Iowa 1120, 49 N.W.2d 521) where we held Division IV of the amended petition stated a cause of action in view of the allegations of express malice and publication of the alleged statement in the presence of others than Davis. Division III of the amended petition with which (together with Division IV) we are now concerned was not involved in the prior appeal. Division V is not now before us since we affirmed its dismissal upon the prior appeal.

I. The only evidence the deputy fire marshal of Arkansas was an agent of defendant, as Division III alleges, is *1089 Davis’s testimony that when the officer came to see him in an Arkansas town he said he represented the Home Fire & Marine Insurance Company. The trial court correctly ruled this was not competent proof of the alleged agency. It is elementary that in the absence of other evidence of agency the extrajudicial statements of an alleged agent to a third person are not admissible, over objection, against the alleged principal to prove agency. See 3 C. J. S., Agency, section 322c (1), page 276; 2 Am. Jur., Agency, section 445; Friedman v. City of Forest City, 239 Iowa 112, 126, 30 N.W.2d 752, 759; Folsom v. Grove, 233 Iowa 1140, 1143, 11 N.W.2d 368, 369; Klassie v. Holt, 233 Iowa 826, 830, 10 N.W.2d 540, 542, and citations. See also Schroeder v. Cedar Rapids Lodge No. 304, 242 Iowa 1297, 1301, 49 N.W.2d 880, 882.

Of course plaintiff had the burden to prove her allegation the deputy fire marshal was acting as defendant’s agent. Dugan v. Midwest Cap Co., 213 Iowa 751, 756, 239 N.W. 697; Ferguson v. Pilling, 231 Iowa 530, 533, 1 N.W.2d 662, 664; 3 C. J. S., Agency, section 315b; 2 Am. Jur., Agency, section 442. Since there was no competent evidence the deputy fire marshal was authorized to act for defendant the verdict for defendant on Division III was properly directed on such ground.

II. Error is assigned in the court’s refusal to permit plaintiff to amend Division IV of her petition to conform to the proof during the trial by alleging defendant’s attorney said out of court in the presence of Clifton Davis and others unknown to plaintiff, while the case over the insurance was on trial: “Clifton why didn’t you come up to the Bankers Trust Building as I told you.? You could have put your hands on $150 by agreeing to testify that Gracie Lee Robinson set the fire that damaged the house and burned up her husband.”

Before the above amendment was tendered, plaintiff offered to prove by the witness Davis that Mr. Bannister and Mr. Ahlers, defendant’s attorneys in the action on the insurance policies, came to see him in March 1950 when he was at work at the Firestone plant in Des Moines, a foreman called the witness outside the plant where Mr. Ahlers “made some statements about this fire, if I knew how it was set, and I said ‘No’, but he said *1090 be knowed Grace Lee Robinson set the fire that burned up her husband and her house. He said we have the goods on her because they had got the statement from down in Arkansas that I had stated.” Also that Ahlers told him to come to the tenth floor of the Bankers Trust Building but Davis did not go. Objections to this offer of proof on the ground the statement was privileged were overruled and the witness testified in the jury’s presence in accordance with the offer.

Plaintiff also offered to prove by Davis that after he was subpoenaed to attend the trial of the insurance action he saw Mr. Ahlers in a hall of the courthouse before court convened and the attorney made substantially the statement contained in the amendment later tendered to Division IV of the petition. This offered testimony was objected to on the ground the claimed statement was privileged and also was outside the pleaded issues. Plaintiff then tendered the amendment to Division IV. The amendment was not allowed on the ground it came too late. While we find no definite ruling on the objection to this offer of testimony, the offer was not received.

Rule 88, Rules of Civil Procedure, provides in part, “The court, in furtherance of' justice, may allow later amendments, including those to conform to the proof and which do not substantially change the claim or defense.” This rule has been given substantially the same interpretation previously accorded the statutory provision it supersedes. Terpstra v. Schinkel, 235 Iowa 547, 552, 553, 17 N.W.2d 106, 109; Brown v. Schmitz, 237 Iowa 418, 423, 22 N.W.2d 340, 343.

The trial court has a broad discretion in the matter o£ permitting an amendment during the trial.

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Bluebook (online)
59 N.W.2d 776, 244 Iowa 1084, 1953 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-home-fire-marine-insurance-iowa-1953.