Cain v. Robinson Lumber Co.
| Decision Date | 21 December 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 28980,28980 |
| Citation | 273 S.W.2d 741 |
| Parties | Lendell CAIN, Employee (Plaintiff), Respondent, v. ROBINSON LUMBER COMPANY, Employer (Defendant), Highway Casualty Company, Insurer (Defendant), Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Luke, Cunliff & Wilson, St. Louis, Dearing & Matthes, Hillsboro, of counsel, for appellant.
Samuel Richeson, Potosi, for respondent employer.
WOLFE, Commissioner.
This is a claim for compensation against O. A. Robinson and R. B. Robinson, doing business as Robinson Lumber Company, and their insurer, Highway Casualty Company. It was first heard before a referee for the Division of Workmen's Compensation, and, upon application for review, before the Commission. The Commission found that the claimant suffered a compensable injury and directed that the insurer pay to him $20 per week for 27 weeks, and further found that the employers and insurer were liable 'for whatever medical, surgical and hospital expenses' the employee had incurred. Upon appeal by the insurer the circuit court affirmed the award and the insurer again appeals.
The claimant suffered an injury to his right index finger on February 21, 1952, when his hand was caught between two logs in his employers' lumber yard. The accident occurred during the course of, and arose out of, the claimant's employment. Upon this there is no dispute, but the insurer claims that its policy covering the liability of the employers had been canceled prior to the accidental injury and that by reason of this the Commission erred in finding that it was liable for the award.
The evidence as it relates to the insurance is as follows. A standard Workmen's Compensation and Employers' Liability Policy was issued by the Highway Casualty Company effective as of September 13, 1951, to O. A. Robinson and R. B. Robinson, doing business as Robinson Bros. Lumber Co. The policy was for one year. It provided that the premiums were based upon the entire remuneration paid to the employees of the insured. The amount of the premium was to be paid in quarterly installments and was subject to adjustment to be made quarterly. The initial premium paid was an estimated advance subject to the quarterly adjustment mentioned. The policy further provided that the first report of wages paid was to become due on December 13, 1951, and that the quarterly premium then computed to be due was to be paid immediately.
The policy also provided:
The employers paid an initial premium of $325 but made no report of the wages paid over the first quarterly period. The insurer mailed to them on December 1, 1951, a form called Audit Adjustment wherein the employers were supposed to insert the amount of their payroll and return the form to the insurer for the computation of the second quarterly premium. This was not returned to the insurer so a warning notice was mailed to the employers stating that a notice of cancellation would be sent unless the Audit Adjustment form was returned. A carbon copy of the warning notice dated December 20, 1952, was addressed to Potosi, Michigan, instead of Potosi, Missouri, which was the employers' place of business. On January 3, 1952, the insurer deposited in the mail at its home office in Chicago a cancellation notice informing the insured that the policy was canceled effective January 14, 1952, for nonpayment of premium. A carbon copy of the notice properly addressed to the insured was put in evidence together with a post office receipt for a letter from the Highway Casualty Company to Robinson Bros. Lumber Company. The receipt bore the same date as the carbon copy of the cancellation notice and an employee of the insurer testified that such receipts were only taken by them for mail containing notice of cancellation.
On the same day that this notice was mailed to the employers the insurer also directed a letter to the Division of Workmen's Compensation of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations of Missouri, stating that the insurer had canceled its policy with the Robinson Bros. Lumber Company. This was received by the Commission and was put in evidence.
One of the employers testified that they had received no notice of cancellation and did not know that there had been any cancellation of the policy until March 7, 1952. It was agreed that the postmaster of Potosi, if called, would testify that no registered mail had been received for the Robinson Bros. Lumber Company in January of 1952.
On January 25, 1952, the insurer's agent sent a telegram to the insurer requesting reinstatement of the policy but no action was taken on the request. A computation of the premium due up to the effective date of the cancellation notice showed a balance of $22.79 owing to the insurer.
The Commission found that the liability for the injury was insured by the Highway Casualty Company and that the Highway Casualty Company had failed to notify the employers of the cancellation as required by the terms of the policy and that the policy consequently was in force on February 21, 1952, when the claimant was injured.
The appellant contends that the award and finding is contrary to all of the evidence and the undisputed facts. To this...
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Corp v. Joplin Cement Co.
...Steel Tank Co., 364 Mo. 1241, 275 S.W.2d 298; Sanderson v. Producers Commission Ass'n, 360 Mo. 571, 229 S.W.2d 563; Cain v. Robinson Lumber Co., Mo.App., 273 S.W.2d 741, affirmed 365 Mo. 1238, 295 S.W.2d 388; Palm v. Southwest Missouri Wholesale Liquor Co., Mo.App., 176 S.W.2d 528; Stepanec......
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Cain v. Robinson Lumber Co.
...the St. Louis Court of Appeals where the judgment of the Circuit Court affirming the award was reversed and remanded with directions. See 273 S.W.2d 741. The opinion in the Harris case on the present submission settles the jurisdictional question (which prompted transfer of the case to this......
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Harris v. Pine Cleaners, Inc.
...this court on transfer from the St. Louis Court of Appeals. The opinions there adopted are reported, respectively, in 274 S.W.2d 328, and 273 S.W.2d 741. Transfers were ordered by this court to resolve the uncertainty presently existing in the decisional law as enunciated by the Kansas City......
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Slay Warehousing Co., Inc. v. Leggett, 53576
...address as it appeared on the Assessor's tax roll, and, on the present record, that was proper notice. Cf. Cain v. Robinson Lumber Co., 273 S.W.2d 741, 744 (Mo.App.1954). Plaintiff's attack on the 1983 assessment is neither clear nor explicit. Plaintiff argues that it also did not receive n......