St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Leflore Bank & Trust Co.

181 So. 2d 913, 254 Miss. 598, 1966 Miss. LEXIS 1558
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 17, 1966
DocketNo. 43738
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 181 So. 2d 913 (St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Leflore Bank & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Leflore Bank & Trust Co., 181 So. 2d 913, 254 Miss. 598, 1966 Miss. LEXIS 1558 (Mich. 1966).

Opinion

BRADY, Justice.

This is an appeal by the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company from a judgment rendered by the Circuit Court of Leflore County, Mississippi against it in favor of the appellee,. Leflore Bank & Trust Company, in the sum of $15,957.92 and costs of court. The facts in this case are prolific but the disposition of this case does not require a detailed analysis of all the evidence and we confine ourselves solely to those matters which are essential.

The appellee is engaged in the banking business, while the appellant is engaged in the business of insurance. In 1960 appellant sold and issued to appellee a certain insurance policy commonly called a bankers blanket bond, which was dated August 1, 1960. All premiums required for the policy at the time of appellee’s loss had been paid and the policy was in full force and effect. The pertinent parts of the policy which are for consideration here are as follows:

The Underwriter agrees to indemnify the Insured to any amount not exceeding $50,000.00 from and against any loss sustained by the Insured through having, in good faith and in the course of business, whether for its own account or for the account of others, in any representative, fiduciary, agency or any other capacity, either gratuitously or otherwise, purchased or otherwise acquired, accepted or received, or sold or delivered, or guaranteed in writing or witnessed any signatures upon, or given any value, extended any credit or assumed any liability, on the faith of, or otherwise acted upon any Securities, documents or other written instruments which prove to have been counterfeited, forged, raised or otherwise altered or lost or stolen. * * *

The record discloses that at the time of the transactions involved, C. E. Holmes was [915]*915engaged and had been for many years engaged in conducting a cotton business in Greenwood, Mississippi. The appellee was engaged in lending money to Holmes, a cotton buyer, on the security of cotton represented by cotton warehouse receipts. These loans were made under the terms of a written contract between the appellee and Holmes dated November 19, 1962. This contract was the usual contract prevailing in this area under which banks financed men engaged in the cotton business.

Under the contract between appellee and Holmes, the appellee paid checks and drafts drawn on it by Holmes and accepted from Holmes cotton warehouse receipts as security for the indebtedness created by ap-pellee’s having paid such checks and drafts. On May 2, 1963, the indebtedness of Holmes to appellee under the above contract amounted to $22,328.69, plus interest from April 29, 1963, at the rate of SY¡% per annum.

The record discloses that this loan had been made by appellee to Holmes in good faith and in the regular course of business under the written contract; that Holmes had placed with appellee a cash margin of $3,300 and 138 negotiable warehouse receipts issued to bearer by cotton warehouses located in Mississippi, to evidence the ownership of cotton on storage in the warehouse issuing the receipt. The appellee discovered that neither Holmes nor it had any title to 122 of these warehouse receipts. As to the remaining 16 receipts of the 138 held by the appellee, appellee had D. T. Sayle & Company, a Greenwood cotton factor, sell these bales for the highest prices obtainable, and applied the proceeds of these sales and Holmes’ cash margin of $3,300 to the indebtedness due it by Holmes. After these applications were made to Holmes’ debt, appellant claimed Holmes owed a balance of $17,619.46, with interest at the rate of per annum from July 10, 1963, until paid. Appellee had no security for this indebtedness except the 122 warehouse receipts hereinabove mentioned.

Appellee’s immediate demand of Holmes that he pay his indebtedness in full was of no avail and, because of Mr. Holmes’ financial circumstances, the appellee could not collect from him any of the balance due. Appellee thereupon made demand for the cotton in the three compresses which had issued the 122 receipts being held by appellee. The three compresses refused to comply with appellee’s demand.

Appellee’s investigation disclosed that the owners of the cotton evidenced by the 122 receipts had made bond for the receipts to the warehouses in question, obtained new or duplicate receipts from the warehouses and had secured the cotton from the three compresses and shipped it away, and that the compresses no longer had the cotton. One of the rightful owners of the receipts testified on cross-examination and redirect that he discovered that the man who had taken 20 receipts from his desk was C. E. Holmes and that he caught Holmes in the collar and shook him and told him that he had stolen said property and that the Federal Government was going to get him if he didn’t turn the receipts back in, and that as a result Holmes delivered 12 of the 20 receipts to the Itta Bena Compress for cancellation but could not deliver the other 8 receipts because they were in the possession of the appellee.

The procedures or methods utilized in the issuance of new or duplicate cotton receipts, the record discloses, are those which are customarily followed, and are in accordance with the Federal Warehouse Act under which the warehouses operated.

The undisputed evidence in the record establishes the fact that the 122 receipts were lost by or stolen from the rightful owners at various times in 1960, in November 1961, and on February 26, 1962, and that thereafter under the contract of November 19, 1962, between appellee and Holmes, the said receipts were pledged to appellee by Holmes. It is admitted that on June 6, 1963, appellee executed and delivered to appellant proof of its loss on a [916]*916form furnished to appellee by the appellant for that purpose. Appellant denied any liability to appellee and appellee instituted suit demanding judgment against appellant in the sum of $17,427.66. Appellant filed a demurrer to the declaration. The demurrer was overruled and appellant filed its answer denying any liability. The cause was tried and a peremptory instruction was granted to the appellee and judgment entered in favor of appellee in the sum of $14,692.40. From this judgment this appeal was taken.

There are two assignments of error:

1. The trial court erred in overruling the demurrer of appellant and -in directing a verdict for appellee.

2. Appellee cannot recover from appellant for a loss until there is an actual loss and the proof in the case at bar clearly shows that the compresses or cotton warehouses are still liable for their original cotton warehouse receipts.

The demurrer of the appellant assigned six grounds. The essential parts of the two errors assigned by the appellant overlap and are so interrelated that they can be treated together. Moreover, the six grounds urged in appellant’s demurrer are likewise argued under the two errors assigned. Therefore, the errors do not have to be discussed separately.

Appellant urges that the whole question involved is: Can the bank as a holder of an insuring bond recover from its bonding company while it holds original negotiable cotton warehouse receipts that were pledged to the bank in the due course of business? The answer to this basic question is determined by the proper answer to subordinate questions necessarily involved therein.

At the outset we hold that the determining provisions of the bond specifically contemplate the coverage of the losses occasioned in the case at bar.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

South Mississippi Finance Co. v. Mississippi State Tax Commission
605 So. 2d 736 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1992)
United States National Bank v. Reliance Insurance
501 A.2d 283 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1985)
Craig v. Columbus Compress & Warehouse Company
210 So. 2d 645 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 So. 2d 913, 254 Miss. 598, 1966 Miss. LEXIS 1558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-paul-fire-marine-insurance-v-leflore-bank-trust-co-miss-1966.