Davies v. Maryland Casualty Co.

Citations

• 89 Wash. 571
• 154 P. 1116
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 843

Syllabus

<p>Insurance — Indemnity Insurance — Payment oe Judgment. Tbe execution of notes by an insolvent coal company in satisfaction of a judgment recovered by tbe widow of an employee, is a mere subterfuge and not a payment of the judgment, where the company was indemnified by a policy of indemnity insurance, which it at the same time assigned to the judgment creditor in consideration of the immediate cancellation and return of the notes, the intention being to enable the creditor to sue on the policy as though the assured had in fact paid the judgment.</p> <p>Same — Indemnity Insurance — Prepayment of Judgment — Waiver. Where an insurer on an indemnity policy undertook the defense of an action against the employer, it assumed a feature of a liability contract as distinguished from an indemnity contract, and waived the right to insist that the assured pay the judgment before action on the policy.</p> <p>Corporations — Contracts — After Forfeiture and Receivership —Void or Voidable. Where an insolvent coal company, after its name had been stricken for failure to pay its license fees and its assets had thereupon passed to a receiver, assigned to its judgment creditor an indemnity policy indemnifying it on account of the judgment, in exchange for an attempted satisfaction of the judgment, in order to permit the creditor to sue on the policy, as though the judgment had in fact been paid, the assignment was not void but voidable, the receiver having acquiesced therein, and the indemnity company cannot set up the invalidity of the assignment.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error. Reversible error cannot be predicated on misconduct of counsel where it is clear that the verdict of the jury could not possibly have been affected thereby and the verdict should have been directed as rendered.</p>