Burleson v. Northwestern Mutual Insurance

Citations

• 86 Cal. 342
• 24 P. 1064
• 1890 Cal. LEXIS 1030

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Compensation op Agent— Commissions on Premiums—Conditions— Contracts—Construction.—When an insurance agent appointed for this state under a contract for commissions on premiums, with certain conditions attached, enters into another contract with the company, whereby part of the state is committed, with his consent, to another agent, and his commissions on premiums in the territory so committed is fixed at a reduced rate, without attaching express conditions to such reduced commissions, the second contract must be construed in connection with the original contract and as a modification thereof, and all conditions attached to commissions upon premiums in the original contract apply to such reduced commissions.</p> <p>Id.—Termination op Agency — Limitation of Right to Commissions — Assignment. — When the contract of an insurance agent with the company limits the right to receive commissions on renewal premiums to the duration of the agency, and provides that the agency may be terminated at any time for failure of the agent to account for moneys collected, the agent cannot transfer to an assignee any greater right than he himself possesses; and if the agency is terminated for a shortage of the agent in his accounts, his assignee can recover no commissions on premiums accruing after such termination, though such agent or his assignee may recover any commissions actually earned before the defalcation for which the agency was terminated, subject to the indebtedness of the agent growing out of his agency under the contract,</p>