142 N.Y.S. 548 | City of New York Municipal Court | 1913
The plaintiff in this action is the assignee of a claim formerly belonging to four insurance companies, so hereinafter, for a complete comprehension of the facts, when reference is made to the plaintiff, the insurance companies are intended. The defendant is a corporation doing a general insurance business, procuring insurance for clients, and acting as agents in certain cases for insurance companies, and issuing as such agents insurance policies. It is conceded in the case at bar that, the defendant company was not the general agent for the issuing of policies for any of the companies plaintiff in this action. The defendant in the course of its business submitted a risk or application for insurance upon a vessel lying in some western waters, and the plaintiff issued the policy of insurance to the amount of $2,000. The policy was sent to the defendant and subsequently delivered to the insured in the west. A short period of time elapsed when plaintiff wrote to the defendant company advising it of its desire to cancel the policy, and stated in a letter dated November 8, 1911: ‘‘ Kindly give this your usual prompt attention and in the meantime consider this letter in lieu of the usual five days’ notice of cancellation.” On November tenth the defendant wrote: ‘ ‘ We have ordered the cancellation of your policy and as soon as received will return same to you.” On the same day the defendant company wrote to its correspondent or agency in the west, the Insurance Agency Company, informing said company that defendant had received a letter from the plaintiff to effect cancellation of the policy in question,
It is equally well settled that a broker or agent employed merely for the purpose of procuring insurance has no implied authority to cancel or to accept an oper
The defendant in this action insists that plaintiff
The evidence in the case at bar, tried before the court without a jury, is almost wholly documentary, consisting of letters passing between the parties to this action, and they lead to the irresistible conclusion that the defendant undertook to effect a cancellation of the policy which is the subject of the suit, and negligently omitted to do so. In addition to the excerpts recited from the letters in this opinion, the letter from the defendant to the plaintiff, dated December 9, 1911, some weeks after the fire loss, is also important. It will be remembered that on November eighth plaintiff informed defendant to cancel the policy. Defendant under the date December ninth wrote: “ On November 8 you wrote us a letter in which you stated * * * you desired the policy canceled. * * * We replied to your letter * * * and stated that we had ordered the cancellation of your policy. We wrote to the In
Judgment accordingly.