Vancouver Nat. Bank v. Law Union & Crown Ins.

153 F. 440, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5103
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Oregon
DecidedMarch 4, 1907
DocketNo. 3,040
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 153 F. 440 (Vancouver Nat. Bank v. Law Union & Crown Ins.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vancouver Nat. Bank v. Law Union & Crown Ins., 153 F. 440, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5103 (circtdor 1907).

Opinion

WODVERTON, District Judge

(after stating the facts). It is first contended that the plaintiff cannot recover, for the reason that it is without an insurable interest in the property covered by the policy of insurance. Under the testimony, and by the explicit admission the parties, the plaintiff had not at the date of the policy, nor has it now, any other interest in the subject of the insurance except as a general creditor. It had not then, nor has it now, any mortgage or judgment, but holds the promissory notes of the George .W. Cone Dumber Company for moneys loaned or advanced, so that it stands absolutely as a general creditor, and in no other position. Such a creditor is without an insurable interest. As expressed by the court in Foster v. Van Reed, 5 Hun (N. Y.) 321, 325:

“It certainly would not be claimed, that a mere simple contract creditor could obtain a valid insurance of his debt from a fire insurance company. The creditor must have an interest in the real estate to authorize him to insure.”

Under certain peculiar conditions simple contract creditors have been held to have an insurable interest, as where the debtor is insolvent, or has since deceased, and the estate constitutes a fund, as it were, for the discharge of his obligations, or the property has been'purchased upon the credit or responsibility of the person claiming the interest. Herkimer v. Rice, 27 N. Y. 163; Rohrbach v. Germania Fire Ins. Co., 62 N. Y. 47, 20 Am. Rep. 451; Roos & Co. v. Merchants’ Mutual Ins. Co. of New Orleans, 27 La. Ann. 409. But no such conditions attend the claim or demand of plaintiff.

The real question, however, is not whether the plaintiff has an insurable interest, but whether it is entitled to sue upon the demand for loss under the policy. It will be noted from the memorandum upon the slip that the loss, if any, was made payable to the bank unconditionalty, not, as is usually the case, “as its interest may appear.” This is, in effect, an appointment of the bank as the party to receive payment in cáse of loss. The parties to the policy have regularly so stipulated with reference to the loss, and the bank has assented thereto; and why may it not sue to enforce the obligation? The legal consequences of such' a stipulation and agreement are well stated by [443]*443Mr. Justice Miller in the case of Bates v. Equitable Insurance Company, 10 Wall. (U. S.) 33, 19 L. Ed. 882. He says:

“Now, it is a well known, and frequent thing in insurance business for a person to insure his life, or his property, and either in the policy itself, or by indorsement at the time it is made, or by subsequent indorsement, to which the consent of the company is generally required, to direct the loss to he paid to some third party. And this is done in language similar to, if not identical with, that used In this case. It is a mode of appointing that the loss of the party insured shall be paid by the company to such third person. This transaction is a very common mode of furnishing a species of security by a debtor to his creditor,, who may be willing to trust to the debtor’s honesty, his skill and success in trade, hut who requires indemnity against such accidents as loss by fire, or the perils of navigation. The property of tlio debtor at risk being thus insured for the benefit of the creditor gives him this indemnity.”

So that the relation stands here simply that the Cone Eumber Company insured its property for the benefit of its creditor, namely, the Vancouver National Bank; and there exists no good or sufficient reason why this may not be done. Guiterman v. German-Amer. Ins. Co., 111 Mich. 626, 10 N. W. 135; Ermentrout v. American Fire Ins. Co., 60 Minn. 418, 62 N. W. 543. I am of the opinion, therefore, that the action was rightly brought in the name of the Vancouver National Bank, and that it could sue whether it had an insurable interest in the property of the insured or not. It is sufficient that the bank was appointed as the party to receive the loss, if any should occur. Such being the agreement of all the parties concerned, it occupies the relation of a trustee, and may recover in its own name.

The next contention is on the part of counsel for plaintiff, which is that, under the provisions of the paragraph running, “If, with the consent of this company, an interest under this policy shall exist in favor of a mortgagee,” etc., it was not designed that a breach by the assured of any of the preceding conditions contained upon the back thereof should void the policy, because, it is argued, all the conditions, if any, affecting the bank were, by intendment, to be contained upon the slip attached thereto, whereby the loss is made payable to the bank. There are several cases in the state courts so holding, the first, and leading one, of which is Oakland Home Ins. Co. v. Bank of Commerce, 47 Neb. 717, 66 N. W. 646, 36 L. R. A. 673, 58 Am. St. Rep. 663. The case is determined entirely upon the interpretation of a paragraph identical with the above. The learned commissioner who announced the opinion of the court renders the stipulation as follows:

“ ‘The conditions hereinbefore contained shall apply,’ not absolutely, but in a qualified way, ‘in the manner expressed in such provisions and conditions * * * as shall be written upon, attached, or appended hereto’; that is, In order to render the general conditions of the policy applicable to the interest of a mortgagee, there must he written upon, attached, or appended to the policy, relating to the interest of the mortgagee, some provisions or conditions expressing in what manner the conditions of the policy shall be so applicable.”

He then further reasons that no conditions were written upon or attached or appended to the policy, and hence that the general provisions should not apply. The clearest statement of the position i§ contained in a later case. Christenson v. Fidelity Ins. Co., 117 Iowa, 77, 90 N. W. 495, 94 Am. St. Rep. 286. The court, after quoting a part of the clause, says:

[444]*444“This means that, in order that they become applicable to the interest of the mortgagee, the manner thereof must be indicated by an indorsement or some writing attached to the policy. Nothing of the kind was indorsed on or appended thereto, and for this reason the conditions do not apply.”

Other cases to the same purpose are Senor & Muntz v. Fire Insurance Co., 181 Mo. 104, 79 S. W. 687; Fast v. New Orleans Insurance Association, 76 Miss. 697, 23 South. 358; Queen Ins. Co. v. Dearborn Sav., Loan & Building Ass’n, 175 Ill. 115, 51 N. E. 717; Northern Assurance Co. v. Chicago Mut. B. & L. Ass’n, 98 Ill. App. 152; Boyd v. Thuringia Ins. Co., 65 Pac. 785, 25 Wash. 447, 55 L. R. A. 165. Opposed to this view is a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, before Caldwell, Sanborn, and Thayer, Circuit Judges. The opinion is by Mr. Justice Sanborn. After stating the contention of counsel for the defendant in error, which is the same as that made by counsel for plaintiff here, he says:

“But the clause which these parties selected -and attached to the policy had a known, definite, and adjudicated meaning. It had a settled legal effect when they chose and appended it to the contract. The meaning and effect that the indemnity thereby secured to the mortgagees was subject to the risk of every act and neglect of the mortgagor which would avoid the original policy-in his hands.

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Bluebook (online)
153 F. 440, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vancouver-nat-bank-v-law-union-crown-ins-circtdor-1907.