127 Ga. 326 | Ga. | 1907
This was a suit by an insurance company to recover premiums alleged to be due, the company being engaged in the business of insuring against loss by burglary. The defendant had applied for and obtained two policies, each for a term of five years. The premiums for the first year had been paid. The policies provided that they might be “cancelled at any time by written notice served upon the assured by a representative of the company or mailed to the assured at his address as hereinafter given.” They also provided that the assured might “require the cancellation of the policy at any time,” but did not provide any particular manner in which the notice of cancellation should be given. The defendant claims that it had given the notice to the .company to cancel the policies at the expiration of the first year, and therefore that the company was not entitled to recover the premiums sued
In National Building Asso. v. Quin, 120 Ga. 358, it was held that evidence that a letter was written to a given person does not authorize the presumption that he received it, unless the evidence also shows that such letter was properly addressed, duly stamped, and mailed. See also 1 Greenl. Bv. 137, and note 2; 35 Albany Law Journal, 82; Burch v. Americus Grocery Co., 125 Ga. 153(3). There are some authorities which hold that the word “mailed,” when used in reference to sending matter through the mails of the United States, carries with it the presumption that the postage due on such matter has been paid. See Rolla State Bank v. Pezoldt, 69 S. W. 53(5); Words & Phrases, 4275; Pier v. Heinrichshoffen, 67 Mo. 169. But in the decision in National Building Asso. v. Quin, supra, that meaning does not seem to be given to the word “'mailed,” it being there used to describe the mere act of depositing a letter in the mails. In this sense there might be such a thing as the mailing of an unstamped letter. The presumption that a letter has been received when intrusted to the mail for delivery is a presumption arising from the regularity in the method of business adopted by the postal authorities. In order for this regular
Judgment reversed.