This is an action involving a claim by plaintiffs for payment of basic loss benefits from.an insurance policy they held with defendant, Harleysville Insurance Company, under the Pennsylvania No-fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act, 40 P.S. §1009.101 et seq. (repealed 1984, February 12, P.L. 26, §8(a), effective October 1, 1984). Plaintiffs seek these payments for injuries they sustained from an autqmobile accident that occurred on January 31,1984. Both parties, through their counsel, have, submitted to this court an agreed-upon statement of facts upon-which they request an entry of judgment. A summary of the statement of facts follows.
In September 1982, plaintiff, Arnold Joyner, purchased automobile insurance under the “assigned risk” plan of the Pennsylvania No-fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act, 40 P.S. §1009.105, 75 P.S. §17. Plaintiff purchased this insurance through a licensed insurance broker in Philadelphia trading under the name Seers Insurance Agency.
Defendant, Harleysville Insurance Company, was selected under the plan as the servicing insurance carrier and issued an automobile insurance policy to plaintiff. Plaintiffs policy continued in force throughout 1982 and was renewed for an additional year in September 1983. Plaintiff made all of his
When Harleysville did not receive payment for
In general, absent some special condition or circumstance in the particular case, a broker is not the agent of an insurer and may not be converted into an agent of an insurer without some action on the part of the insurer, or the existence of some facts by which his authority to represent it may be fairly inferred. Couch on Insurance 2d §25:95. It is also the general rule, however, that an insurance broker acts as an agent for the insurer for the purpose of coUecting and remitting the premium and deUvering the poUcy to the insured. Id.; see Transcontinental Oil Co. v. Atlas Assur. Co. Ltd., 278 Pa. 558, 123 Atl. 497 (1924); Pearl Assur. Co. Ltd. v. National Insurance Agency Inc., 150 Pa. Super. 265, 28 A.2d 334 (1942).
WhUe there are no Pennsylvania cases which have considered or discussed, in the context of an assigned risk plan, the UabiUty of an insurer for the default of a broker, this problem was addressed in Sands v. Granite Mutual Ins. Co., 232 Pa. Super.
As between plaintiffs and Harleysville, the latter was in a far better position to obviate Seers’ default. Harleysville could have advised plaintiffs to forward their premium payment directly to the company, but this was never done. Since Seers was clothed with apparent authority to accept premiums, the payment to them by plaintiffs were good payments. As was said in 14 Appelman, Insurance Law Practice, §7982:
“The receipt of premiums by an agent appointed either expressly or by implication by the insurer to deliver the policy and collect premiums has been considered a receipt of such premiums by the insurer. The fact that such agent, authorized to collect premiums, fails to remit them to the insurance company, does not deprive the insured of his protection. The majority rule seems to he that from the insured’s point of view it is immaterial whether such agent fails to remit the premiums to the insurer until after the loss or at all; if the insured was entitled to rely upon such agent’s apparent authority to receive premiums, the payment is a valid one, irrespective of actual receipt by the company.” (emphasis supplied)
Harleysville, having accepted the benefit of doing business in Pennsylvania and the benefit of plaintiffs’ premiums paid over before Seers’ default, will not now be heard to deny the burden of its contract with plaintiffs. Accordingly, plaintiffs are entitled to judgment in their favor and the court so orders.
The court found neither Taylor v. Crowe, 444 Pa. 471, 282 A.2d 682 (1971) cited by plaintiffs, nor Pearson v. Selected Risks Ins. Co.,
