United Insurance Company of America v. Dienno
| Decision Date | 15 December 1965 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 37466. |
| Citation | 248 F. Supp. 553 |
| Parties | UNITED INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA v. Italo F. DIENNO, William Carpitella and Pilgrim Life Insurance Company. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Kimber E. Vought, Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, Philadelphia, Pa., Edward B. McGuinn, Teschke, Burns, Maloney & McGuinn, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.
David N. Rosen, Silvers, Rosen, Sherwin, Seltzer & Shapiro, Philadelphia, Pa., for defendants Italo F. Dienno and William Carpitella.
Rames J. Bucci and Anthony J. Cavuto, Bucci & Bucci, Philadelphia, Pa., for defendant Pilgrim Life Ins. Co.
The plaintiff instituted this diversity action against the individual defendants and the corporate defendant on the grounds that they had engaged in tortious acts of unfair competition. The plaintiff seeks injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and an accounting of certain commissions and profits received by defendants. The motion for a preliminary injunction is now before the court.
FINDINGS OF FACT.
1. United Insurance Company of America (hereinafter referred to as "United"), is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Illinois, with its main office and principal place of business at Chicago, Illinois.
2. Italo F. Dienno (hereinafter referred to as "Dienno") is an individual residing at 642 Beverly Boulevard in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania.
3. William Carpitella (hereinafter referred to as "Carpitella"), is an individual residing at 815 Park Drive, Glenolden, Pennsylvania.
4. Pilgrim Life Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to as "Pilgrim"), is a domestic stock limited life insurance company organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with its main office and principal place of business located at 1650 Point Breeze Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
5. The amount in controversy in this proceeding, exclusive of interest and costs, is in excess of $10,000.
6. At all times mentioned herein, United was, and still is, qualified to write and issue various types of life insurance policies in Pennsylvania, including what are commonly known as industrial insurance policies.
7. The industrial life insurance business involves the sale of life insurance policies, usually in the face amount of $1,000 or less. Such insurance is usually sold by the insurance company through an agent who will operate within a certain area known as a debit. The agent will sell such insurance on behalf of the insurer by going from home to home within his debit. As part of his duties, the agent will collect weekly premiums from the insured and remit his collections weekly to the insurance company for whom the policies are sold. Such premiums may be collected at the insured's home or at some prearranged location.
8. On or about March 16, 1964, Quaker City Life Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to as "Quaker"), a life insurance company organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with its principal place of business in Philadelphia, reinsured all of its life insurance business, including its industrial life insurance business, with United. A public announcement of this proposed reinsurance was made on November 13, 1963.
9. As consideration for the reinsurance of such business by United, United paid Quaker 1,500,000 shares of its stock.
10. At the time Quaker reinsured its business with United, Dienno and Carpitella, as well as a number of other persons, were employed by Quaker as agents in the Philadelphia area for the purpose of soliciting applications for industrial life insurance and for the purpose of collecting premiums from policyholders and remitting to Quaker.
10A. The debit areas assigned to Dienno and Carpitella consisted of a few city blocks each within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
11. Included in the business which Quaker reinsured with United were a substantial number of industrial life insurance policies on which Dienno and Carpitella, as well as other persons, were collecting premiums from policyholders and remitting them to Quaker.
12. On or about March 16, 1964, Dienno and Carpitella as well as other Quaker agents, were appointed by United as its agents for the purpose, inter alia, of placing industrial life insurance business with United, and for the purpose of collecting and remitting to United premiums on such policies as well as on a number of policies already issued by United, including policies reinsured with United by Quaker.
13. Dienno and Carpitella, as well as other former agents of Quaker, were given debit books containing a list of the company's customers assigned to each.
14. When Quaker placed a new agent in an established debit it would train the agent for several weeks by having an assistant manager work directly with the agent by using the debit book as his guide, by taking the agent to the policyholder's home, by showing such agent how to sell business, by showing him how to mark the policyholder's receipt books, by showing him the general records of the company, and by showing him how to adjust to the former agent's working habits regarding the time when he was to call on a policyholder and when the policyholder was accustomed to pay.
15. At the time these new agents were appointed by Quaker to serve as its agents, Quaker not only assigned them to established debits but furnished them with debit books containing the names and addresses of the persons insured by Quaker in the debit area to which the agent was assigned, and such agents continued to use such debit books for the purpose of collecting premiums and for the purpose of adding to the debit books names of new policyholders on whom they were able to place insurance with Quaker and removing therefrom the names of policyholders whose policies were cancelled or lapsed. These books became the property of United when United purchased these debits under the reinsurance agreement.
16. The names and addresses of policyholders of Quaker and United listed on these debit books, as well as such debit books themselves, are confidential information, and valuable assets of United.
17. Being dissatisfied with United, a number of agents, including Dienno and Carpitella, formally terminated their association several months following the effective date of the reinsurance agreement and became associated with Pilgrim, either through a general agency known as the Cal-Ery Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Cal-Ery"), or as employees or agents of Pilgrim.
18. Cal-Ery is a corporation authorized to do business as a general life insurance agent consisting primarily of former Quaker and United Insurance agents, who, because of their years of experience as industrial life insurance agents for Quaker and United in servicing defined debit areas and because of their acquaintance with the policyholders they were servicing, entered into an agreement with Pilgrim on April 15, 1964 whereby each agent in Cal-Ery was licensed, or each future agent of Cal-Ery would be licensed as a subagent to sell industrial life insurance exclusively for Pilgrim.
19. Just prior to its entering into such agreement with Cal-Ery, Pilgrim only had approximately 8 to 10 agents soliciting insurance on its behalf, while after the Cal-Ery agreement was made, Pilgrim's agency force increased by 23 or 24 more agents.
20. Cal-Ery now owns about 12% of the outstanding stock of Pilgrim.
21. Pilgrim knew, or should have known, at the time it licensed these agents that they were agents of Quaker or United just prior to becoming agents of Pilgrim and that they had terminated their associations with these companies following the reinsurance by United of Quaker's business.
22. At the time these agents terminated their associations with United and became associated with Pilgrim, they had developed a familiarity and friendship with many of the policyholders they had been servicing and carried in their minds the names and addresses of many policyholders whose policies had been reinsured by United.
23. Immediately upon their appointment as agents of Pilgrim, these agents solicited policyholders for Pilgrim in the same debit area as they had been servicing for Quaker and United.
24. During a period of approximately seven weeks following the termination of each agent as an agent of United, during which period such agent was soliciting on behalf of Pilgrim in the same debit area as he had been servicing for Quaker and United, United suffered lapses in such debits in the amount of $3,404.47, including $237.46 in the debit of Carpitella and $196.04 in the debit of Dienno.
25. Under normal conditions, the average weekly lapse in a $500.00 debit served by an industrial life insurance company is no more than $10.00 or 2% of the total weekly premiums collected on the debit. The amount of lapse will increase to approximately 10% for the three or four weeks following the death, resignation, or transfer of the regular insurance agent in a given debit area.
26. During approximately a seven week period from the respective dates that four agents including Dienno and Carpitella terminated their employment with United and became associated with Pilgrim, some 317 persons within their respective debits allowed their policies with United to lapse and purchased a total of 526 insurance policies with Pilgrim. The number of lapses was much higher than would be normal following the death, resignation, or transfer of any regular insurance agent in a debit area.
27. Over the period of one year, an average agent soliciting a normal debit under normal circumstances where the weekly premium collections average about $500.00 per week, can expect to increase such weekly collections (after allowing for normal increases of about 2½% and lapses of 2%) only by about $25.00.
28. By the second week he was with Pilgrim, Dienno had built the debit he was servicing from zero to...
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