94 Kan. 499 | Kan. | 1915
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The action was one to recover on two promissory notes given by the defendant for the premium on a new life insurance policy issued in place of an old one which was surrendered. The plaintiff, a field manager under a general agent of the insurance company, negotiated the exchange of policies. The notes were made payable to the general agent, but the plaintiff took them up at maturity, and owned them when suit was brought. The defense was failure of consideration because the new policy had not been delivered. The plaintiff recovered, and the defendant appeals.
When the defendant sent in the old policy he stated
. The policy became binding on the insurance company when it was placed in the hands of the solicitor for unconditional delivery to the defendant. The contract of insurance was then complete, and manual delivery of the evidence of the contract to the insured by messenger was not essential to perfect the obligation of the defendant’s promissory notes. The adoption in good faith of the ordinary method employed by the business world for the transmission of such articles was sufficient. .
It is said that section 4341 of the General Statutes ■of 1909, making it unlawful for an insurance company or its agent to transfer premium notes to an innocent purchaser before delivery of the policy, bears upon the case, but manifestly this is not so. The question here presented is the sufficiency of the means employed to place the instrument in the possession of the defendant, and the cutting off of defenses by transfer to an inno-' cent •'purchaser is not involved. •
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.