Farmers' & Laborers' Co-Op. I. Ass'n v. Bank of Centralia

• Decision Date: 07 February 1933
• Docket Number: No. 22180.,22180.
• Citation: 56 S.W.2d 606
• Parties: FARMERS' & LABORERS' CO-OP. INS. ASS'N OF AUDRAIN COUNTY v. BANK OF CENTRALIA et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

56 S.W.2d 606

FARMERS' & LABORERS' CO-OP. INS. ASS'N OF AUDRAIN COUNTY v. BANK OF CENTRALIA et al.

No. 22180.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

February 7, 1933.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Audrain County; W. C. Hughes, Judge.

Bill of interpleader by the Farmers' & Laborers' Co-operative Insurance Association of Audrain County, a corporation, against the Bank of Centralia, a corporation, the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, and another. From a judgment for the first named defendant, the second named defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

Eugene E. Bowers, of Kansas City, and Joseph M. Bone, Jr., of Mexico, Mo., for appellant.

Fry, Hollingsworth & Francis, of Mexico, Mo., for respondents.

SUTTON, C.

This action was instituted in the circuit court of Audrain county, on August 27, 1931, by bill of interpleader.

The defendant Bank of Centralia was, at the time the bill of interpleader was filed, and has been since March 22, 1930, in process of liquidation, in charge of S. L. Cantley as commissioner of finance.

On June 11, 1931, a barn on a farm in Audrain county, owned by defendant Bank of Centralia, subject to a deed of trust held by defendant John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, was destroyed by fire. The plaintiff, Farmers' & Laborers' Co-operative Insurance Association, carried a fire insurance policy on said barn and other buildings, which policy of insurance was in full force and effect at the time of the fire. The amount of the loss resulting from the destruction of the barn by fire, as agreed upon by the parties, was $1,400. The defendant Bank of Centralia and the defendant John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company each made claim to the proceeds of the policy. Thereupon the plaintiff, Farmers' & Laborers' Co-operative Insurance Association, filed its bill of interpleader. Plaintiff, pursuant to the court's order, paid into court $1,400, the proceeds of the policy, and was discharged. Defendants interpleaded for the fund thus paid into court.

Upon the trial, the court found the issues in favor of defendant Bank of Centralia, and gave judgment directing the fund to be paid over to said bank. From this judgment the defendant John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company has appealed to this court.

The farm upon which the barn destroyed by fire was located was formerly owned by Thurman Chapman, subject to a first deed of trust given by Chapman and his wife to the Maxwell Investment Company to secure the payment of their promissory note in the sum of $5,000, under date of January 1, 1920. Said note and deed of trust were assigned by the Maxwell Investment Company to defendant John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, on May 7, 1920.

This deed of trust expressly provided that the mortgagor was not required to keep the improvements on the farm insured against loss by fire.

On September 6, 1921, Chapman gave a second deed of trust on said farm to J. T. Mitchell to secure the payment of his promissory note for $2,500. This second deed of trust was foreclosed on July 21, 1928, and R. P. Price, then the president of defendant Bank of Centralia, became the record purchaser thereof, subject, of course, to said first deed of trust held by defendant Hancock Company.

On the 13th day of August, 1928, R. P. Price, still the record owner of said farm, obtained from the Farmers' & Laborers' Cooperative Insurance Association the policy of insurance here involved. This policy of insurance was made payable to R. P. Price; there being no clause in the policy making the same payable to the mortgagee.

On March 16, 1929, R. P. Price, for a recited consideration of $1,000, conveyed the farm to defendant Bank of Centralia. The deed conveying the farm to the bank was duly recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in Audrain county, on March 19, 1929. The bank acquired the farm subject to, but did not assume, the first deed of trust held by the Hancock Company. When the commissioner of finance took charge of the bank, in March, 1930, he found the deed from R. P. Price and the policy of insurance among the papers of the bank. From the time the commissioner took charge of the bank up to and beyond the time of the fire, he paid the premium assessments made by the insurance association. The first of these assessments was issued to and in the name of R. P. Price, who delivered it over to the commissioner for payment. The commissioner called the attention of the secretary of the insurance association to the fact that the Bank of Centralia was then the owner of the farm, and the assessments were thereafter made against the bank and were paid by the bank.

On July 13, 1931, after the fire, the insurance association, through its secretary, after inspection of the insured premises, reduced the amount of the insurance carried on the premises and notified the bank as the holder of the insurance of such reduction.

The Hancock Company offered evidence tending to prove that both the bank...