Court Opinion

ID: 9585270
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:58:28.778079+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:37:35.128464
License: Public Domain

Justice Martin
dissenting.
Believing as I do that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that Brooks, as agent for plaintiff insurance company, solicited the application of insurance on the life of Miller pursuant to N.C.G.S. 58-197, I respectfully dissent.
Brooks did not seek out the Miller Company and present it with a plan for key man insurance. The uncontradicted evidence is that Buie and Donley, officers of the Miller Company, told Brooks that the company wanted additional life insurance on the life of Lacy Miller and asked Brooks to attempt to locate an insurance company who would issue the policy. The majority opinion agrees with this: “Buie and Donley informed him [Brooks] that the company was interested in purchasing insurance on the life of Lacy J. Miller.”
Brooks thereafter tried to place the insurance with Equitable, but it refused to issue the policy because Miller suffered from a heart condition. Brooks continued to look for a company that could issue a policy to satisfy the needs of defendant. After Buie and Donley expressed an interest in obtaining a policy from plaintiff, Brooks then sought to establish some relationship with plaintiff.
The evidence shows that Buie and Donley, acting for the defendant, knew that the company had a problem with funding the stock purchase agreement. Lacy Miller was a poor insurance risk. He had a severe heart condition as well as problems with alcohol. He was no longer a “key man” with the company. He had been removed as president of the company and had even been enjoined by the court from taking any action with respect to the business. Buie and Donley were anxious to place this insurance and had Brooks working to do so on their behalf.
*78“Solicit” is not defined in the statute. Its ordinary meaning is to be applied. It means to approach with a request or a plea as in selling or begging. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2169 (1971). There is no evidence that Brooks approached the defendant in an effort to sell it the policy or to persuade it to buy the policy. All the evidence is to the contrary — defendant requested Brooks to find a company that would issue a policy covering Miller. Brooks did not initiate the transaction; Buie and Donley did. The statute was not passed to protect consumers from their own activities.
Brooks was regularly servicing the insurance needs of defendant. He was not an insurance agent for plaintiff during the time in question. Brooks was an “insurance broker” and is so described in the record and briefs. It is unchallenged that a broker does not have the power to bind an insurer for which he is not an agent upon any risk or insurance contract. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-40.3(a) (1982). It was for this reason that plaintiff made Brooks its agent at the time the policy was issued. This statute covers exactly what Brooks was doing: procuring the policy from plaintiff for whom he was not an agent.
I find that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that the evidence was sufficient to submit the issue to the jury as to whether Brooks solicited the application pursuant to N.C.G.S. 58-197. I vote to reverse.
Justice MEYER joins in this dissenting opinion.