Ware v. Home Mutual Insurance

281 N.W. 617, 135 Neb. 329, 1938 Neb. LEXIS 188
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 7, 1938
DocketNo. 30392
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 281 N.W. 617 (Ware v. Home Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ware v. Home Mutual Insurance, 281 N.W. 617, 135 Neb. 329, 1938 Neb. LEXIS 188 (Neb. 1938).

Opinion

Rose, C. J.

This case involves the liability of Home Mutual Insurance Association of Iowa, defendant, on a policy of indemnity insurance for bodily injury, resulting from an automobile accident, during the term of one year beginning May 12, 1934. The insurance was written on a Chevrolet coupé owned by Morris D. Meyer, who sold it August 11, 1934, while the policy was in force, and purchased a Chevrolet coach subsequently involved in an accident.

When George Heinrich was operating the coach owned by Meyer, September 2, 1934, it collided with another car and Anna Ware, plaintiff, was injured as a result of the accident. She sued both Meyer and Heinrich for damages and recovered an 800-dollar judgment against them for personal injuries March 28, 1935. Execution on the judgment was issued February 7, 1936, and returned by the sheriff nulla bona.

Seeking application of Meyer’s insurance to the judgment in favor of plaintiff, and pleading facts essential to such relief, including the allegation that the insurance was transferred to the coach, though originally written to cover the coupé, she procured a summons in garnishment which was served upon the insurer and required it to disclose in court any credit of the judgment debtors or any property in its possession or under its control belonging to either of them. In answering the summons, garnishee alleged it owed them nothing and had in its possession nothing belonging to them; answers challenged by plaintiff as false.

The Home Mutual Insurance Association, defendant, garnishee, pleaded in defense of alleged liability for indemnity that the insurance coverage on the Chevrolet coupé which was sold prior to the accident September 2, 1934, was never extended to damages caused by Heinrich while he was driving the Chevrolet coach when plaintiff was injured, ex-[331]*331elusive authority to change insurance coverage to the coach having been committed to the president of insurer alone and not exercised prior to the accident. Indebtedness of insurer to Meyer or Heinrich in any form was denied. Facts constituting a defense to the garnishment were put in issue by a reply.

Upon a trial of the issues raised by the pleadings in the proceedings in garnishment, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $1,029.66. From judgment therefor defendant appealed.

Insufficiency of the evidence to support a judgment in favor of plaintiff, failure to direct a verdict for defendant and errors in the instructions are the principal questions raised by the assignments of error.

The trial court submitted to the jury the controverted issues that, prior to the accident, the insurer waived its president’s written indorsement on the policy changing the indemnity insurance from the coupé to the coach and that it made the change through its state agency in Lincoln— methods of transfer at variance with provisions of the policy. The sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict in favor of plaintiff on those issues is the controlling question on appeal.

Many of the facts are admitted by the insurer or shown by it or proved by plaintiff without contradiction. The Home Mutual Insurance Association, insurer, defendant, writes in Nebraska in large volume indemnity accident policies of insurance on automobiles. For the purpose of its business in Nebraska it maintains a state agency in Lincoln with an office telephone listed in the Lincoln directory in the name of “Home Mutual Ins. Ass’n.” In that agency Maynard V. Mills is state agent with power to appoint soliciting agents, solicit applications for insurance, collect premiums, and receive applications and data from policyholders for the transfer of insurance from one automobile to another. Such information was accepted from a policyholder or any one acting for him. Mills’ office employee in the performance of the duties of his agency was Bernice [332]*332Fisher, who was required to answer the telephone, take care of the mail and the books and receive notice, applications and data for change of car indorsements on policies. George Rowe, adjuster for insurer, and his stenographer, Pauline Schriber, occupied an office in the Lincoln agency, the latter performing services for both Mills and George Rowe. Forms for change of car indorsements on policies were printed by the thousand including the facsimile signature of H. J. Rowe, as president of insurer. Applications by policyholders for these indorsements were received at the Lincoln agency at the rate of one to three a day. Attention to them was generally given the day they were received. Ordinarily the change was made as a matter of course. Insurer admitted the issuance of the policy May 14, 1934, for the term of one year; the accident with the Chevrolet coach September 2, 1934; the 800-dollar judgment. The policy was never canceled. No part of the premium was ever returned to the policyholder. The insurance risk and the premium on the coach were no greater than on the coupé. The facts narrated are clearly shown by the record.

There is, however, a violent conflict in the evidence on the issues that, prior to the accident, the state agency at Lincoln was notified that Meyer sold his coupé and bought the coach, that he applied there for a transfer of the insurance on the coupé to the coach, giving the necessary data, and that he was assured the change had been made. The president of insurer testified in effect that no one but himself had authority to extend the insurance on the coupé to the coach or to make such an indorsement on the policy; that, prior to the accident, no application for the change or necessary information therefor was received by insurer or by any one authorized to make such a change; that it was not made prior to the accident. There was testimony of a similar import by the state agent and by the two girls who assisted him in the state agency at Lincoln.

On the contrary, Morris H. Foist testified in substance that as sales agent he sold both the Chevrolet coupé and the Chevrolet coach to Meyer; that Meyer told him not to [333]*333deliver the coach without insurance on it and asked him to get the insurance on the coupé transferred to the coach; that Foist, by telephone which was listed in the current telephone directory in the name of insurer, called the state agency of insurer at Lincoln and talked to a woman in the office there; that she checked records to see if Meyer had insurance; that he gave her the motor number, the serial number and the price of the coach and asked her to make the transfer and that she said she took care of it; that Foist called the office of insurer in Lincoln in the forenoon on the date of the sale and delivered the coach in the afternoon of the same day, prior to the accident. The evidence is that insurer already had the premium for insurance. There was testimony that Meyer was told prior to the accident that he had insurance on the coach and that he believed he was thus protected. The jury believed the witnesses who testified on behalf of plaintiff.

The refusal of Meyer to take possession of his coach until after it had been insured was a precaution naturally prompted by the perils of a motorist on a public highway. Wreck-strewn arteries of travel, hospitals thronged with maimed and mutilated persons who had been occupants of automobiles and morgues filled with dead victims of negligent operators of motor vehicles warn purchasers of passenger cars to procure indemnity insurance promptly.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
281 N.W. 617, 135 Neb. 329, 1938 Neb. LEXIS 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ware-v-home-mutual-insurance-neb-1938.