Allstate Ins. Co. v. Buck

• Decision Date: 17 September 1957
• Docket Number: No. 36816,No. 2,36816,2
• Citation: 96 Ga.App. 376,100 S.E.2d 142
• Parties: ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY v. T. B. BUCK, Jr. et al
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 142

100 S.E.2d 142

96 Ga.App. 376

ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY v. T. B. BUCK, Jr. et al.

No. 36816.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

Sept. 17, 1957.

Syllabus by the Court

Under the Uniform Business Records Act in Code (Ann.Supp.) § 38-711, a business firm may introduce in evidence records made in the regular course of its business when it is the regular course of business to make such records, regardless of lack of personal knowledge on the part of the entrant or maker. Under this rule a 'P.O.R.S. list' kept by an insurance company is admissible in evidence although on a form furnished by the U. S. Post Office Department, where there is accompanying evidence that such list is one of those regularly made up by the company at the time of sending out cancellation notices, and the form contains a list of nine names and addresses checked off in sequence, shows post office date stamp and prepaid postage in the amount of 27cents and is accompanied by a copy of cancellation notice to the judgment debtor whose name and address appears thereon, bearing the same date. The copy of cancellation notice in connection therewith is admissible for the same reason.

The defendant in error Dr. Pepper Bottling Company, after obtaining a judgment against the defendant in error Harry H. Bell for a tort resulting from an automobile collision, garnished the plaintiff in error Allstate Insurance Company in the Superior Court of Muscogee County. The insurance company denied any indebtedness to Bell, but set up that it had issued a policy of automobile liability insurance to Bell dated July 9, 1955 for a yearly premium of $73; that Bell actually made a down payment of $29 and that an additional payment of $22 was due on October 9, 1955; that the payment was never made and on November 4 the policy was cancelled for nonpayment of premium and was accordingly not in force and effect at the time of the collision on November 16. On the trial of this issue the only testimony offered was that of Robert Barge, Jr., an assistant operating manager of the Atlanta office of the insurance company. Relative to the mailing of the cancellation notice he testified substantially as follows: the office procedure regarding mailing of notices is that bills are prepared in duplicate; a first notice is sent out 21 days before the payment is due, and a remainder notice within 7 days of the effective date; the Atlanta office services some 85,000 policy holders; if, after bills are sent out no money is received the ledger cards are sent to a collection clerk who requests the file and obtains a cancellation and reinstatement notice stamped out by the addressograph machine; these items are sent to her; she then checks the file and if nothing appears there to the contrary she fills out the cancellation part of the notice with the amount due, date of handing and cancellation date; she carries the original of this notice to the mail room together with a 'P.O.R.S. list' containing the names and addresses of the persons for whom the notices have been prepared which is run at the same time the cancellation notices are run (apparently on the addressograph machine). She checks the notices against the list to see that they conform; a mail clerk then places the notices in window envelopes and again checks them with the list, placing the envelopes in the order in which the name appears on the list; at 4 p. m. daily the prepared list and envelopes are taken to the 10th Street Post Office, Station 'C' where they are again checked by a postal clerk; the 'P.O.R.S. list' is stamped with the date, station, and amount of postage (3cents for each name on the list) and the copy is returned to the insurance company, which, along with copy of the cancellation notice, is placed in their files. The policy contains a provision as follows: 'Allstate may cancel this policy by mailing to the named insured at the address shown in this policy written notice...