Kean v. Maryland Casualty Co.

Headnote

Insurance (indemnity) — action to recover for loss arising from acceptance of uncertified check which was afterwards dishonored on ground that transaction constituted larceny.

Kean v. Maryland Casualty Co., 221 App. Div. 184 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment, entered July 25, 1927, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of plaintiffs entered upon a verdict and directing a dismissal of the complaint. The action was to recover upon a banker’s and broker’s blanket bond insuring plaintiffs, amongst other things, from loss through theft. Plaintiffs, who had been doing business for some time with a firm of brokers in Philadelphia, delivered to them United States Treasury certificates to the amount of $450,000 and accepted their uncertified check in payment thereof. The check was dishonored, the firm proved to be insolvent and went into bankruptcy. Claim is made for the resulting loss on the ground that the transaction constituted larceny. The defense was that no larceny was actually committed; that even though larceny were committed, the loss fell beyond the scope of the covering clauses of the bond and was specifically excluded by its restrictive provisions.