7 S.E.2d 687 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1940
Where a surety company contracts to indemnify a bank against loss occasioned by the defalcation of any employee thereof, and on an alleged defalcation by an employee pays the loss on presentation by the bank of a claim in accordance with the terms of the contract, the bank may properly transfer to the company its right of action against the employee to recover the amount of its loss, and the company may then maintain an action in its own name against the employee to recover the amount paid by it to the bank.
The defendant demurred to the petition as amended on the ground that no cause of action was stated, there being no contractual relation shown between the plaintiff and the defendant whereby the defendant might be liable to the plaintiff for any sums paid on his account. The defendant demurred on various special grounds. The trial judge overruled the demurrer and the defendant excepted. It is insisted by the defendant that the judge erred in overruling the general demurrer because it appeared from the petition that there was no contractual relation whatever between the parties to the suit, but that the plaintiff had issued to the bank an instrument which, as the defendant contends, was a policy of insurance and not a bond; that the defendant had nothing to do therewith; that the defendant made no bond to the bank, and that the plaintiff was not a surety, and any right it might have was because of a purported assignment to the plaintiff of the bank's claim against the defendant. The contract referred to specifically provided that the plaintiff agreed to indemnify the bank against any losses sustained by it covered by "the bond," which coverage included "any loss through any dishonest, fraudulent, or criminal act" of any employee of the bank. The alleged shortages of the defendant resulting from the alleged dishonest, fraudulent, and criminal acts in stealing, deducting, and *779 appropriating or removing the sum stated in the amended petition, which sum belonged to the bank and which it alleged the defendant concealed by making various false entries in its books, were covered by this contract or "bond." By reason of these alleged shortages of the defendant the bank suffered the loss of its money in the sum stated in the amended petition, and this loss was paid by the plaintiff on presentation by the bank of a claim therefor in accordance with the provisions of the contract. The claim thus paid by the plaintiff to the bank, being the amount of the alleged shortage of the defendant, was assigned in writing by the bank to the plaintiff, and suit thereon was brought against the defendant in the name of the plaintiff, as provided in the assignment. By this assignment the plaintiff succeeded to the right of the bank to recover from its employee the amount of money alleged to have been taken by him, on payment of this loss by the plaintiff to the bank. The bank had a right of action against the defendant for the monetary loss sustained by it by reason of the alleged dishonest and fraudulent acts of the defendant. In consideration of the payment to it by the plaintiff of the loss sustained by it as a result of the alleged dishonest and fraudulent acts of the defendant the bank could properly transfer and assign to the plaintiff its right of action against the defendant, and it could do this even had there been no agreement by the plaintiff to indemnify it against such a loss.
Under the Code, §§ 85-1803, 85-1805, a right of action for damage to property, or a right of action or chose in action arising from tort which involves, directly or indirectly, a right of property, is assignable. See Sullivan v. Curling,
The form of an assignment of a chose in action is immaterial. It is sufficient if it is in writing and manifests the intention of the *780
owner to transfer to the assignee his title to the chose in action. Southern Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Durden,
The petition stated a cause of action and none of the grounds of special demurrer were meritorious. The trial court properly overruled the demurrer on all the grounds.
Judgment affirmed. Sutton and Felton, JJ., concur.