Walmsley v. Stowell

• Decision Date: 06 October 1913
• Citation: 160 S.W. 62,174 Mo. App. 67
• Parties: WALMSLEY v. STOWELL et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

160 S.W. 62

174 Mo. App. 67

WALMSLEY v. STOWELL et al.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

October 6, 1913.

MONEY RECEIVED (§ 6) — VOLUNTARY PAYMENT—RECOVERY.

Plaintiff, an insurance broker, having applied to defendants for insurance for a client, policies were issued, and at the end of the month plaintiff advanced the premiums for his client, and defendants paid them to the receivers of the insurance companies writing the policies, which in the meantime had become insolvent. The client died before paying any of the premiums to plaintiff, the property was destroyed by fire, and, the insurers having become insolvent, nothing was collected thereon. Held, that, plaintiff having voluntarily advanced the premiums to defendants, and they having paid the same to the receivers of the insurers, defendants had no money belonging to plaintiff which in equity they ought not to keep, and hence were not liable to plaintiff therefor in assumpsit.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; W. O. Thomas, Judge.

Suit by Harry Walmsley against A. C. Stowell and another. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

J. H. Bremerman, of Kansas City, for appellant. H. L. Green, of Kansas City, for respondents.

TRIMBLE, J.

This suit was instituted before a justice of the peace to recover of defendants the sum of $40.15, with interest. A man by the name of Graham, in Excelsior Springs, applied to one Morse for insurance on certain property there. Morse applied to plaintiff, Walmsley, an insurance broker in Kansas City, to procure the insurance for Graham. Walmsley placed a part of the insurance with defendants, as agents of a Western insurance company, and the rest with Fowler & Sons as agents of other companies. Policies from all these companies were issued by the respective agencies representing each. It seems that there is a custom among the insurance agents of Kansas City where insurance has been placed by them in each other's companies, to have a settlement at the end of the month, and for the one that owed the other a balance on that month's business to settle it by sending the other a check for such balance. At the close of the month, defendants, in settlement of the business between them and Walmsley, took out of the amount they owed him the amount of the Graham insurance premium, and sent him a check for the balance. Walmsley made no objection to this at the time. Before Graham paid any of the premiums, he died, and the property insured burned, and the companies in which it was insured went...