Opinion ID: 2402652
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Utz Complaint

Text: The facts in respect of the charge brought against Mrs. Nuger alone in connection with this matter are virtually undisputed. Richard Leslie Utz, a minor, went to the AA Agency's office to obtain a JR 11 certificate. This is a Maryland Minor's Financial Responsibility Certificate to be filed with the Department of Motor Vehicles, which states that the minor has been issued a policy of liability insurance for the purpose of complying with the Maryland Automobile Financial Responsibility Act. Utz testified he was given the certificate in the Nuger's office. The certificate was executed over the signature of Mrs. Nuger as an authorized representative of Southern General Insurance Company and stated that Utz was insured by that company. Mrs. Nuger denied that the signature was hers. She admitted the certificate was signed in her office but stated that the signature of her name was by an employee who had signed the form without her authority. Mrs. Nuger testified that the certificate is issued when the application is taken and immediately thereafter the application is sent to the office of Leonard R. Shope, general agent for the Southern General Insurance Company. Ordinarily, the policy of insurance on the application is issued after seven or eight days. The company generally issues the policy promptly but, if the credit report and other reports are unfavorable, it subsequently cancels the policy. In this case, the Southern General Insurance Company informed the Department of Motor Vehicles that Mrs. Nuger was not an agent for the insurance company and that there was no policy in effect insuring Utz. The AA Agency, which was the Nugers' brokerage firm, had been doing business with Mr. Shope for more than a year. Mr. Shope testified that he had furnished the Nugers with policy numbers and signed applications and had authorized the firm to fill out the JR 11 form with Mr. Shope's signature. Mr. Nuger, but not Mrs. Nuger, was licensed as an agent of the Southern General. Utz had been issued an instruction permit when he filed the JR 11 form; upon receipt of the notice from the Southern General that Mrs. Nuger was not its agent, Utz's permit was cancelled. Several months later, a valid and acceptable JR 11 form under Mr. Shope's signature was duly filed with the Department. The charge against Mrs. Nuger was wilful violation of the statute. That she was negligent is apparent. That negligence consisted in permitting her signature to be affixed by some employee when she was not an agent of Southern General, without appropriate instructions to or supervision over the employee, and, inferentially at least, in failing to check what had been done in her office for several months. However, Mr. Nuger had authority to issue a valid certificate in Mr. Shope's name and when the mistake was belatedly discovered, a proper certificate was issued through the Nugers' office. Negligence of itself is not one of the grounds stated in Section 111 for the revocation or suspension of a license. Section 121 of the old law dealt with the qualifications of fire and casualty agents and solicitors and provided that before the Commissioner shall issue a license, he shall require the applicant to satisfy him that the applicant had sufficient education and experience in the insurance business. It is unnecessary to consider whether negligence of a licensed solicitor would justify the Commissioner in refusing an application to renew the license, for the charge against Mrs. Nuger was expressly based upon her alleged wilful violation of Section 111. The term wilful violation as used in Section 111 clearly means an intentional act of omission or commission. See Schwebell v. Orrick, 153 F. Supp. 701 (D.C.D.C. 1957). Wilfulness and negligence are not synonymous terms. Rideout v. Winnebago Traction Co., 123 Wis. 297, 303, 101 N.W. 672 (1904); Southern Railway Co. v. Davis, 132 Ga. 812, 815, 65 S.E. 131 (1909); Cook v. Big Muddy Mining Co., 249 Ill. 41, 51, 94 N.E. 90 (1911); In re Cunningham, (N.D.N.Y. 1918) 253 F. 663, 665. There was no evidence before the Commissioner or the lower court to show that Mrs. Nuger was more than negligent or to sustain a charge of wilful violation in the sense that she intended to violate the statute. The Commissioner's finding in respect of this charge therefore was unsupported by competent and substantial evidence and was against the weight of the evidence and the lower court's finding to the contrary can not be sustained.