Vanderslice v. Insurance Co.

Citations

• 13 Pa. Super. 455
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 178

Syllabus

<p>Fraud of third person — Innocent person — Negligence.</p> <p>Where one of two innocent persons must suffer loss by reason of fraud or deceit of another, the loss should fall upon him by whose act or omis-sion the wrongdoer has been enabled to commit the fraud.</p> <p>Insurance — Fraudulent transfers — Agency—Burden of proof — Notice.</p> <p>Where an insurance broker is entrusted with insurance policies assigned in blank, for the purpose of having them transferred, he is thereby made the agent of the owner of the policies and given the power of perpetrating the fraud of filling in his own name and collecting the return premiums.</p> <p>When the owner in a suit to recover the premiums from the company offered these policies with their assignments, in evidence, they constituted evidence of payment in full by the company to the proper party, and the burden was upon the plaintiff to rebut the prima facie defense thus presented by proving not only that the assignments were fraudulently procured, but that the company, before paying the money on the faith of the assignments, had notice of the fact.</p>