Sellers v. VanUxem, Pierce & Co.

Citations

• 2 Monag. 63
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1351

Syllabus

<p>In an action of assumpsit on a promissory note, for $427.53, by VanUxem, Pierce & Co., payees, the defendant, the maker, asserted, in an affidavit of defence, a counter-claim, as follows : The plaintiffs, insurance agents, placed a policy upon the life of one Hammond, receiving a premium thereon of $2,260; there is due the defendant, as an insurance solicitor, commissions upon said amount of either 40 per cent., if the policy was a “whole life policy, paid by more than 20 annual premiums ” or 30 per cent, if “ a whole life policy paid by 10 annual premiums ; ” that he is entitled thereto in that Hammond was discovered by him, interviews were had with him, statement furnished him, information covering the proposed insurance was made to Moore & VanUxem, general agents of the insurance company, of which Harold Pierce, one of the plaintiffs, was the manager; the said Harold Pierce becoming familiar, through the defendant, with the particulars of Hammond’s case, so under charge of the defendant, and the present plaintiff firm through him ; and so knowing the fact that the defendant was entitled to receive the commissions so established, the plaintiff firm received the said sum ; the commissions belong to defendant under an established custom, among men in the same line of business as the parties to this action, fixing the payment of the commission to the agent acting as did the defendant. The court made absolute a rule for judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit of defence. Held, not to be error.</p>