Aetna Life & Cas. Co. v. Charles S. Martin Distributing Co.
| Decision Date | 16 July 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 44560,No. 1,44560,1 |
| Citation | 120 Ga.App. 133,169 S.E.2d 695 |
| Parties | AETNA LIFE & CASUALTY COMPANY v. CHARLES S. MARTIN DISTRIBUTING COMPANY, Inc., et al |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Long, Weinberg & Ansley, Sidney F. Wheeler, Charles M. Goetz, Jr., Atlanta, for appellant.
Thomas T. Purdom, Decatur, for appellees.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
1. "Where to the policy of insurance there is attached in favor of the mortgagee what is known as the 'New York standard mortgagee clause,' by the terms of which it is provided that the interest of the mortgagee shall not be invalidated by reason of any act or neglect on the part of the mortgagor, this agreement operates as a separate and distinct contract of insurance upon the mortgagee's interest, and gives to the mortgagee such an independent status as might authorize a recovery by him on the policy even though the circumstances were such as would prevent a recovery by the mortgagor.' Southern States Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Napier, 22 Ga.App. 361, 362(2), 96 S.E. 15. See also 11 Couch on Insurance 2d, 344, 348, §§ 42:685, 42:694.' (Emphasis supplied.) Employers' Fire Ins. Co. v. Penna. Millers Mut. Ins. Co., 116 Ga.App. 433, 436, 157 S.E.2d 807. Accordingly, in the plaintiff insured's action against the defendant insurer to recover under a fire insurance policy containing such clause, the defendant's defenses to the claim of the intervenor-mortgagee (appellee), i.e., that plaintiff had wilfully and fraudulently burned her property in order to collect the insurance thereon and had failed to perform all of the policy's conditions precedent, do not bar said mortgagee's claim to the proceeds of the policy under the mortgagee clause.
2. Where the typewritten description of the property covered in said policy specified the contents of the insured's named place of business, and the mortgagee clause of the title endorsement ended with the provision, 'The above mortgagee clause Does not apply to personal property. (Emphasis supplied.) followed by '*Note to Agents-This (above-quoted) line ( must be voided when clause is made applicable to personal property,' the typewritten provision must govern over the conflicting printed one (which was not voided by the defendant's agent as he was instructed to do) in construing the policy. See Code § 20-704(7); Couch on Insurance, 2d, Vol. 1, § 15:49, pp. 738 et seq.; Ibid, § 15:71, pp. 772 et seq., citing, inter alia, the Georgia cases ...
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