Teutonia Ins. Co. v. Ewing

TAFT, Circuit Judge (after stating the facts). Oaks & Abernathy were.agents of the defendant insurance company to make contracts of insurance. By a letter of instructions, of which the plaintiffs had no actual knowledge, their general agency to insure property was limited. The limitation will not relieve the defendant, therefore, from liability for the act of its agents, though in violation of it, unless it can show that the plaintiffs are to be-charged with constructive notice of the limitation, by reason of the other circumstances disclosed. The argument on behalf of the insurance company is that Crockett was the agent of the plaintiffs in obtaining the insurance, and that, as Crockett was advised by 219 Oaks of ibis limitation, the plaintiffs are charged with knowledge of it. Upon the facts stated, we do not think that Crockett was the agent of the plaintiffs in procuring this insurance. He stated to the plaintiffs that there was an arrangement between the agents of the different insurance companies in Pulaski, by which, if one brought business to another, they would share commissions, and that he wished the opportunity to take this business to some other agency, so that he might share the commission. This did not make Harwood & Crockett the agents of the plaintiffs. They were merely insurance solicitors. It may be—we do not decide the point — that Crockett was not the agent of the insurance company. He might hare been the agent of neither party. He really was the agent of the agents of the defendant. He was their solicitor of insurance. The compensation for his services had been agreed upon in advance. The plaintiffs were advised by Crockett that this was the capacity in which he was acting, and so was Oaks. When, therefore, the insurance policy contract was brought by Crockett to the plaintiffs, he was bringing it, not as their agent, but as the agent of the representatives of the defendant company who paid him. His knowledge could not, therefore, he charged to the plaintiffs. Errors, if any, in the instructions of the court to the jury, could not have been prejudicial to the defendant below, because the plaintiffs were entitled, as a matter of law, to the verdict. Judgment affirmed.