45 A.2d 375 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1945
Argued December 11, 1945.
This case came to the common pleas on an appeal from a judgment entered by a justice of the peace. After plaintiff's statement was filed, the lower court, on defendants' rule, dismissed the action on the ground that the justice did not have jurisdiction of the cause of action and the common pleas therefore had none on appeal. The legal principle invoked is well settled. Moreland Twp. v. Gordner,
Keystone Indemnity Exchange, legally authorized by its subscribers to issue and exchange reciprocal or inter-insurance contracts in Pennsylvania, became insolvent and pursuant to an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County was in the process of liquidation by the Insurance Commissioner. On September 12, 1938, the Dauphin County Court, after full hearing, disclosing a deficiency of assets to meet liabilities, "decreed that the subscribers of Keystone Indemnity Exchange holding policy contracts exchanged among said subscribers and issued from April 9, 1929, *480 to May 18, 1933, shall pay an amount equal to one annual deposit premium on each policy issued to them." In each year of that period, defendants as subscribers were the holders of a policy of reciprocal insurance issued by the Exchange. The total of the annual premiums on their policies for these years amounted to $187.40. Judgment in that amount with interest was entered against the defendants by a justice of the peace in favor of the Insurance Commissioner as liquidator, in an action in assumpsit.
By the Act of March 20, 1810, P.L. 208, 42 PS 242, the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in actions in assumpsit is restricted to "causes of action arising from contract, either express or implied." And in such cases the jurisdiction of a justice is limited "to those contracts which arise immediately out of a course of dealing between the parties and not that sort of contract that arises remotely out of the compact of government." Birkhead v. Ward,
Subscribers to reciprocal or inter-insurance contracts are both insurers and insured. What they must pay for the protection of their own property is directly related to their obligation, as insurers, to all other subscribers. Accordingly, the legislature, in the Act of May 17, 1921, P.L. 682, as amended April 9, 1929, P.L. 464, 40 PS 961-964, imposed further terms upon which reciprocal insurance could be undertaken thereafter. Section 1004 of the act as amended,
Two of the policies assumed direct contractual liability in accordance with the amendment, by the provision: "Assured shall be contingently liable for an additional amount, not to exceed, however the annual premium or deposit charged herein." But it is of no benefit to defendants, in the attempt to avoid payment of the assessment in this case, that the other three insurance contracts, effective after April 9, 1929, (by extension of a policy issued in 1925) did not contain the provision, or that the policies in question specifically disavowed further liability thus: "Upon payment of the premium herein provided for, the subscriber shall not be liable for nor required to make any other payment under this contract."
The Supreme Court had occasion to discuss the effect of the 1929 amendment, on subsequent contracts of subscribers of Keystone Indemnity Exchange, in an appeal by them from the above assessment order of the Dauphin County Court and again in a second opinion after a reargument of that appeal. In Com. ex rel.v. Keystone Ind. Exchange,
"It is the duty of the court to treat the law giving justices jurisdiction in civil cases . . . with great liberality in order to prevent injustice": Greenawalt v. Shannon,
This conclusion is not affected by the order of the Common Pleas of Dauphin County determining the amount of the assessment. Of course a justice of the peace has no jurisdiction of an action upon a judgment of a court of record. Wilson v. Long, 12 S. R. 58. But the action here was not so founded. The amendment of § 1004 prescribes the maximum of the subscribers' liability for assessment and not the minimum. Neel, Insurance Com. v. Est. ofOliver et al., supra. What the subscriber must pay is related to the liabilities of the Exchange which the subscribers must discharge. The Dauphin County Court had authority to determine the extent of their liability within the limit fixed by law. The order of that court merely liquidated the subscribers' liability by determining what they were bound to pay, not by virtue of the assessment except as to the amount, but by the obligation of their contracts.
Judgment reversed with a procedendo.