Issaquah Coal Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

Citations

• 126 F. 89
• 61 C.C.A. 145
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4286

Syllabus

<p>1. Fidelity Insurance — Representations by Employer — Authority oe Officer to Bind Corporation.</p> <p>The board of directors of plaintiff corporation, whose meetings were held in New York, passed a resolution requiring the general manager and the assistant treasurer, both of whom were in the state of Washington, where the business of the company was conducted, to procure surety bonds at the expense of the company, and they were so procured; that of the assistant treasurer being issued on a statement signed in the name of the company by the general manager as such, and which was referred to in the bond as having been furnished by plaintiff, and as one of the inducements for the execution of the bond. At the expiration of the term, requests for further statements or certificates from the employer were sent to the officers insured, which were filled out by the auditor of the company in its name, and returned, on which renewal certificates were issued. The auditor’s certificate that the account of the assistant treasurer had been examined each month and found correct, etc., was in fact untrue. Held, in an action against the surety company to recover for a defalcation of the assistant treasurer, that the auditor’s certificate was properly admitted in evidence, and the jury were correctly charged that if the fact of its execution was known to the general manager, who was in charge of plaintiff’s business, of which there was evidence, it was binding on the plaintiff, although the auditor may not have been authorized, by virtue of his official position, to make the same; plaintiff being chargeable with notice from the recitals therein that the original bond was issued upon a statement made in its behalf, and bound to know on what representations the renewals were made.</p> <p>If 1. Fidelity insurance, see note to American Credit Indemnity Co. v. Wood, 19 C. C. A. 273.</p> <p>2. Same — Defenses to Liability — Undisclosed Relation of Employe to Employee.</p> <p>If in fact