Insurance brokers are those whose business it is to effect insurances and to negotiate between the insurers and the assured. Until recent years an insurance broker's business was almost entirely identified with marine insurance, with the result that the great body of the law on the subject has been laid down in cases relating to marine insurance brokage. To-day there exist many insurance brokers whose business is devoted to the negotiation of insurance against fire and other non-maritime risks. The law, however, as it has now been laid down during the last century, may be taken as generally applicable to all classes of insurance brokers as distinguished from merely insurance agents. In marine insurance the insurers are known as underwriters, and this term we shall retain while treating of brokers of this class. By usage of trade, insurance brokers are invested with powers and liabilities unknown to any other class. This is the result of the peculiar charac teristics of the insurance broker's duties. Ile is not only an agent, but to a large extent a principal. In practice he keeps two accounts with the underwriters, called the credit account and the cash account. When the slip for any particular policy is signed, it is arranged between the broker and the underwriter whether the premium is to go into the credit account or the cash account. In either case the broker becomes debtor to the underwriter for the premium at once ; but the time and manner of the payment are different in the two cases. If the premium goes into the credit account, it is not payable until the end of the year. If befoae the end of the year any claim arising on one of the policies in the credit account is adjusted by the broker and the underwriter, the broker on the adjustment has credit in the account against the underwriter for the amount of the loss thus adjusted, if the account is good for that amount ; and at the end of the year, arid not until then, the balance of the account, and the balance only, is due in cash from the broker to the unden‘riter, under a discount of 12 per cent. If the premium, instead of going into the credit accoun t, goes into the cash account, the custom is the same, except that the account is settled, and the balance is due in cash at the end of each month instead of the end of the year, and the balance is paid under a small discount.
An insurance broker may contract with the underwriter in his own name, and where the policy is not under seal he may so contract either with or without naming his principal. An action on a policy made by the broker may be brought either by the broker himself or by his principal. The broker may himself, without special authority, adjust the losses and receive from the underwriter payment therefor in money. But should he be the agent of the underwriter, he has no right to pay losses. Notwithstanding the custom of trade in the matter of accounts between broker and underwriter, and in the absence of the assured's knowledge of it, the broker may not allow the under writer to set off any debt due to him by the broker. Even if the broker is acting upon a del credcre commission, he does not thereby become a principal debtor so as to be able, or be required, to pay a loss to the insured and afterwards recover it from the underwriter. Nor has the broker any implied authority to arbitrate in the case of a disputed loss. It is also his duty both to see that the insurance covers the risk and that the underwriter is a responsible person.
Like many other mercantile agents, the broker has a lien for his general balance upon any policy of insurance in his hands which has been procured by him for his principal, and also upon any money received by him upon such policy ; but this lien extends only over matters relating to insurance brokerage, not to matters outside this relation. Sub-agents have, in the
smile .,ay, a particular lien for premiums and commissions in relation to the policy. Should the broker's principal be acting as agent for another, of which fact the broker has no notice at the time, the lien attaches, notwith standing his principal's agency, and notwithstanding a subsequent disclosure of the real principal ; but should the broker have such notice, the lien will be limited to the necessary out-of-pocket charges.
A shipbroker is a person whose business it is to negotiate and effect charter-parties. His remuneration is by way of commission, usually 5 per cent. upon the agreed or estimated freight, but in the absence of agreement, or of a customary rate, it will be at a rate reasonable under the circumstances. Since his business is not only to negotiate, but to effect a charter-party, it follows that he does not acquire any right to remuneration unless and until a binding charter-party is concluded, and this is the rule, except upon proof of custom of trade to the contrary, whatever may be the cause preventing the conclusion of the charter-party. The earning of the freight is a matter of no importance to the broker, for his remuneration does not, apart from special agreement, depend upon it. Apart from custom, the charter-party must be the direct result of the broker's intervention in order to entitle him to his remuneration ; and in a case where the negotiations pass through a number of brokers' hands, the first introducing broker would receive the commission, provided he did all things necessary to introduce the principals to each other, such, for instance, as mentioning the names and identifying the transaction. A charter-party effixted through a broker has often a clause in its margin to the effect that a certain commission is due to the broker in respect thereof, but this clause would not give to the broker any right of action against the ship for his remuneration. The charterer might take such an action, how ever, on behalf of the broker. The charter-party when signed is usually retained by the broker, and certified copies are given by him when required. Should a shipbroker undertake to get a ship chartered on certain terms and fail so to do, he would be liable to her owner.
BROTHEL.—Legislation on this subject appears to have been first brought about in England by the Bishop of Winchester, in consequence of disturbances in certain disorderly houses kept in Southwark, at the end of the fourteenth century. The houses were said to have been interfered with by Wat Tyler, with the result that he was killed by Sir W. Wal•orth. A brothel may be defined as a disorderly house, or part thereof, to which men and women resort for the purposes of indiscriminate intercourse. Keep ing such a place is a public nuisance, for which the keeper may be indicted at common law. He, or any other concerned in any way in the keeping or the management of the place, are also liable to summary conviction by magis trates. The lessor or landlord, or his agent, who lets a house or any part thereof, knowing that the premises will be used as a brothel, is liable to con viction under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885. The receipt of a rent higher than that usually paid for similar houses would be evidence of guilty knowledge by the landlord. At common law any person may prose cute in respect of a brothel. Contracts to let a house for use as a brothel, or knowingly to supply it with furniture, are void. Any woman detained in a brothel may, for the purposes of escape, take any clothing or apparel neces sary for her departure.