201 F. 515 | 8th Cir. | 1912
The Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company, Limited, a corporation, sued Herbert N. Harding, its agent, for damages for his failure to obey its order to cancel its policy of insurance on certain buildings, machinery, and fixtures of the Northern Pine Crating Company, a corporation, which were situated in the village of Cass Lake in the state of Minnesota, where Harding resided, and there was a verdict and judgment for th.s defendant. This writ of error questions that judgment.
The Northern Crating Company was a .corporation of the stale of Wisconsin, but its manufacturing plant, its principal place of business, and its office for the transaction of business were at Cass Lake, in the state of Minnesota. Its officers, who controlled its business, were E. E. Kenfield, its president, O. A. Lamoreaux, its treasurer, who were engaged in business under the firm name of Kenfield & Lamoreaux, at Washburn, in the state of Wisconsin, and its secretary, M. S. Lamoreaux, who resided in Chicago and never went to Cass Lake. John G. Oman was the bookkeeper of the company. He resided at Cass Lake, worked in the office of the company there, but did not have charge of its insurance. In June, 1909, when the transactions were had which condition the controversy in this case, Kenfield was not at Cass Lake, O. A. Lamoreaux was not there after the 1st of June, and after his departure Oman, the bookkeeper', was the employé of the company in -charge of its office and business. The Crating Company held a policy of insurance against fire on its property at Cass Lake for $3,000, issued by the plaintiff, which contained the familiar clause:
“The company also reserves the right, after giving written notice to the insured, and to any mortgagee to whom this policy is made payable, and tendering to the insured a ratable proportion of the premium, to cancel this policy as to all risks subsequent to the expiration of 10 days from such notice.”
The defendant, Harding, was the agent of the plaintiff. He had issued this policy to the Crating Company on the plaintiff’s behalf, he had authority from the latter to cancel it, and it was his duty to make the cancellation promptly whenever requested ‘by the plaintiff so to do. Phoenix Ins. Co. v. Pratt, 36 Minn. 409, 31 N. W. 454; Franklin Ins. Co. v. Sears (C. C.) 21 Fed. 290, 293.
One of the excuses for his delay in giving notice to the insured of the cancellation of the policy pursuant to the order of the company, which the defendant persistently urged at the trial, was that the only officers of the company upon whom he could serve a legal notice of cancellation were absent from the state of Minnesota, and that he would have been obliged to go to Washburn, in the state of Wisconsin, where they were engaged in business, a distance of 200
Our conclusion is that under the provision of an insurance policy that it may be canceled by the insurer by giving notice of cancellation and tendering a ratable proportion of the premium to the insured, mailing- the notice, or a copy of it, and the return premium in a letter postpaid and addressed to the insured at its post office address, or delivering a copy of the notice and the return premium to an agent of the insured in charge of its office and business, are sufficient to effect the cancellation, where the insured is a foreign corporation, and all its officers are absent from the state in which its office, its principal place of business, and the property insured are situated. A foreign corporation may not perpetuate its insurance under such a policy by selecting officers who absent themselves from the state where its property insured, its office, business, and post office address are situated, and failing to give express authority to its agent in charge thereof to accept notice of cancellation and the return premium. Because the court below fell into an error in this regard, the judgment below must be reversed, and the case must be tried again.
Let the judgment below be reversed, and the case be remanded for a new trial.