Court Opinion

ID: 9601901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:50:39.97631+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:00:28.525979
License: Public Domain

Littlejohn, Justice
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent and would affirm the action of the trial judge in both striking from the Complaint the allegations as to conversion and the granting of the non-suit after presentation of the insurance company’s case.
It is undisputed, and the Plaintiff insurance company alleges in the Complaint, “that James M. Watt was a Managing General Agent for Peoples Life Insurance Company of South Carolina;____” By the terms of the written agreement between Plaintif and Watt, it was provided that: “All money received in behalf of the Company shall be held by M. G. A. in a fiduciary capacity and shall be immediately and properly remitted to the Company. Failure to remit all such money shall terminate this contract.”
James B. Jones, Executive Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Plaintiff testified that Watt “... could solicit applications, and receive money for the application made payable to Peoples Life Insurance Company, or, as the Managing G. A. he had the prerogative to have the checks made to his own agency.” Mr. H. B. Short, First Vice President of the Plaintiff testified as follows:
Q. Now, with respect to collecting the premiums for the policies, what was Mr. Watt’s authority?
A. He was to write the policy and accept the premium.
Q. All right, how was he to collect the premium, in terms of what?
A. By cash or by check.
Q. All right, and how could the checks be made payable?
A. They could’ve been made payable to Peoples Life Insurance Company or Watts Associates, whichever choice he wanted to use.
It was the testimony of these two officers that Watt had been orally instructed that he could cash premium checks made payable to Watts Associates or to Watt, keep the earned *76premium and remit the balance to the Plaintiff, but if a check was made payable to the Plaintiff, the same should be forwarded to the Plaintiff, which, in turn, would send the earned commmissions to Watt.
I agree with the trial judge, who, in his ruling, said:
... the designation of Managing General Agent is completely repugnant in trying to describe some one as being an independent contractor because there’s no such thing as I understand it, it’s an independent agent or an independent contractor who is, in fact, designated as an agent.
If you look at the Contract, it does not prohibit Mr. Watt from doing what he said (sic). Now, there is some oral conversation that came out, additionally, that even if you accept the oral conversation, he had the right to take checks made payable to his own agency or to Peoples Life Insurance. To me, it would seem that if he had the authority to take one to Watts agency, he would also have the authority to take one to Peoples Life and, in effect, endorse it to Watts agency. I can’t see the difference.
There is no showing of any lack of due care on the part of the bank. Had they been submitted the Contract, the Contract does not prohibit doing what he said. It made him a fiduciary, but it didn’t say in what manner those monies are to be deposited and what manner they are to be paid.
The cases of Palmetto Compress and Charleston Paint Company cited in Justice Harwell’s opinion are not persuasive. In Charleston Paint Company, the check had been obviously altered on its face. This Court said that “... it bore unmistakable evidence that it had been altered. ...” In Palmetto Compress, the bank had been furnished with corporate resolutions stating that two signatures were required but the bank honored one signature instead.
The contention that the Plaintiff should have been allowed to proceed on the theory of conversion is without merit. This appeared obvious from the pleadings. In the light of the testimony submitted, it becomes more obvious that the judge’s striking of the conversion allegations was *77proper. Plaintiff could, at most, proceed to trial on the theory of a debt; failure to pay a debt does not amount to a conversion.
Lewis, C. J., concurs.