111 Ga. 737 | Ga. | 1900
Smith sued the Farmers Mutual Insurance Association of Georgia, in the city court of Elberton, upon a policy of fire-insurance. At the trial, in addition to evidence of the value of the property claimed to have been insured, its total destruction by fire, and notice of loss to the company, followed by a refusal on its part to pay, there was evidence that the plaintiff received from one Brown the paper sued on, signed, by the president and secretary of the association. Brown tes
It is said that, because the law requires contracts of fire-insurance to be in writing (Civil Code, §§ 2022, 2089), and also that an agency must be created with the same formality as is required for the execution of the act for which the agency is created (Civil Code, §3002), Manglebury’s parol appointment of Brown w'ould not authorize him to fill in behalf of the company the blanks in the policy delivered to him. ' The contract of insurance was contained in a printed policy signed by the officers of the association, delivered first to Manglebury and by him to Brown. All that was necessary to complete the contract was to find some one who was willing to accept the paper upon the terms therein contained, have the property valued in the manner prescribed in the by-laws of the association, and fill in certain blanks in the policy. Such a person was found in the present case. All that Brown was to do was to fill in Ins name, the description of the property, and the date, after the property had been valued by the director in the manner provided in the rules of the association. Brown did not execute the contract for the association. It was already executed when it was placed in his hands. Blanks in a written instrument may be filled in by parol authority. 1 Gr. Ev. (16th ed.) § 568 a, note 8; Abbott’s Tr. Ev. (2d ed.) 504, § 34, and cases cited. Does the rule just referred to apply in a case where the contract evidenced by the writing is valid only when it is in writing? In Ingram v. Little, 14 Ga. 173, it was held that: “A deed duly signed, sealed, and attested, but without any grantee named and without the amount of the purchase-money stated — these being left blank — is inoperative as a lfiuniment of title,' and can not be completed by a third person in the absence of the grantor., without authority under seal.” In the opinion Judge Nisbet says: “We put our decision upon authority, conceding that the books in England and in this country are in