Akeley v. Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co.

64 Minn. 108
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMay 11, 1896
DocketNos. 9806-(318-21)
StatusPublished

This text of 64 Minn. 108 (Akeley v. Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Akeley v. Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co., 64 Minn. 108 (Mich. 1896).

Opinions

MITCHELL, J.

This case was submitted on briefs at the same time that the case of Clough v. Mississippi & R. R. B. Co., supra, p. 87, 66 N. W. 200, was argued orally; and we were led by what was said by counsel, or rather, perhaps, by what they omitted to say, to assume, without careful examination of the record, that the facts and the legal questions involved were the same in both cases. Upon discovering our mistake, we ordered a reargument on our own motion.

The essential difference between the two cases consists in the fact that in this case the logs in controversy, as well as those previously delivered in 1894, were all the absolute property of N. P. Clarke & Co.; the log marks being recorded in their name, as their property. The agreed facts are substantially as follows: N. P. Clarke & Co. were the owners of a large amount of logs, including the logs in controversy, and bearing the same log mark, and also a large quan[110]*110tity of other logs bearing other marks. During the year 1894 these logs were all in the possession of the defendant, and were being ■driven by it down the Mississippi river to its boom in Minneapolis, and there, from time to time, turned o.ut and delivered to N. P. Clarke & Co. Over 60,000,000 feet, of which over 23,000,000 feet bore, the same mark as the logs in controversy, were thus turned out and ■delivered in the season of 1894, leaving a large amount bearihg these various marks still in the possession of the defendant. The aggregate boom charges of the defendant (which were at a uniform rate per thousand feet) on all the logs thus delivered in 1894 amounted to over $34,000.

The manner of dealing between N. P. Clarke & Co. and the defendant was as stated in the Clough Case, viz,: That at the end of each month during the season the defendant rendered to N. P. Clarke & Co. a statement of the amount of its charges for the logs turned out during the month; the number of feet of the logs of each mark being separately specified, and the total amount of the charges upon all of the logs stated in a single item at the end of the account. When a monthly statement was rendered, N. P. Clarke & Co. gave the defendant their negotiable promissory note for the amount, payable in three months after date; and thereupon the defendant would receipt the bill and deliver it to N. P. Clarke & Co. At the time of giving and receiving these notes, nothing was said as to the ■effect which they might have upon their respective rights in regard to the matters here in controversy; but the defendant did not intend, by receiving the notes, to relinquish any claim of lien which it' might have under its charter “against said mark of logs,” but no communication of such intention was given to N. P. Clarke & Co. From time to time, over half of these notes were transferred by defendant to third parties, and paid at maturity by the makers. The remainder of the notes were renewed from time to time by N.’ P. Clarke & Co. giving the defendant similar three-months notes for the respective amounts of the originals. All of these renewal notes which have not been paid, amounting to $10,000, are still held by the defendant, and were overdue and unpaid on May 15, 1895.

On April 25,1895, N. P. Clarke & Co., for a valuable consideration, ■executed to plaintiff 'a bill of sale of the logs in controversy, which [111]*111were still in the possession of the defendant, in its boom, and which bore the same mark as part of the logs turned out and delivered in 1894, as already stated. This bill of sale was duly recorded the next day in the office of the surveyor general of logs and lumber. When plaintiff purchased the logs, he had no knowledge that the boom charges on logs' delivered in 1894 had not been fully paid. May 4, 1895, N. P. Clarke & Co., being insolvent, made an assignment of their property for the benefit of their creditors. May 15 defendant seized a quantity of the iogs bought by plaintiff, and which remained in its possession in its boom, ready for delivery; claiming to have a lien on them, under its charter, for the proper proportion of its unpaid boom charges for logs turned out and delivered to N. P. Clarke & Co. in 1894, and for which the notes then due had been given. It does not appear when the logs thus seized arrived in the boom at Minneapolis, and were ready for delivery. For anything that appears in the agreed state of facts, they may have been already there before the notes now due and unpaid were given. Neither does it appear when these notes fell due, nor when they, or the notes of which they were renewals, were given. While it is not expressly so stated in the agreed facts, it may be assumed, from the nature of the business, that the logs that were being driven by the defendant for N. P. Clarke & Co. did not, and were not expected to, all arrive in the boom at Minneapolis and become ready for delivery at one time, but from timé to time, and that, as soon as they thus arrived, they were deliverable to the owners upon demand, and payment of boom charges.

The question is whether, upon the facts, the defendant has a lien on the logs so seized, paramount to plaintiff’s title, for any part of its unpaid fees on logs delivered to N. P. Clarke & Co. in 1894. The clause of its charter under which defendant claims a lien is Sp. Laws 1867, c. 134, § 12, which provides that it “shall have a lien and property in all such logs or other timber, so far as to enable it to take, scale and retain a sufficient number or quantity of said logs ■or other timber to pay the boomage and charges due on the same and also all charges due on logs or timber of the same mark that may have been previously delivered.”

1. There is nothing in the point made by plaintiff that defendant’s lien, if any existed, was void, as against an innocent purchaser, un[112]*112der G-. S. 1894, §§ 2405, 2408, because not recorded. The statute cited has no application to a case like the present, where the lien is based on actual possession of the' property. , Possession,- as notice of a party’s right in the property, is equivalent to actual notice. This statement of the law, of course, does not apply where the conduct of the party has been such as to equitably estop him from claiming a lien.

2. Defendant’s right of lien, except so far as affected by statute, is analogous to that of a common carrier by vessel or rail; and it is a familiar rule that the lien of a carrier is a specific or particular lien, for charges and advances upon the particular goods upon which it is claimed, and not a general lien, upon any goods that may come into his possession, for a general balance which the owner may owe him on other accounts. Plaintiff invokes this rule as applicable to this case, because, inasmuch as the logs would not, in the natural course of business, all arrive in the boom at Minneapolis, or be deliverable there, at the same time, they constituted different and distinct bailments, and not a single transaction. Assuming, without deciding, that this general rule is applicable to the defendant, under its charter, still, under the facts, all the logs constituted but a single bailment, within the rule. They were all delivered to the defendant, in the same season, by the same party, as the property of the same owner, for the same purpose, and to be delivered at the same place, to the same consignee. .The only distinction between this and the ordinary consignment of property to a carrier is that, from the very nature of the business, the logs could not all arrive at their destination, ready for delivery, at the same time, and perhaps not during the same season.

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Related

The Bird of Paradise
72 U.S. 545 (Supreme Court, 1867)
Au Sable River Boom Co. v. Sanborn
36 Mich. 358 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1877)
Hughes v. Tanner
55 N.W. 661 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1893)
Crummey v. Raudenbush
56 N.W. 1113 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1893)
Clough v. Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co.
66 N.W. 200 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1896)

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Bluebook (online)
64 Minn. 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/akeley-v-mississippi-rum-river-boom-co-minn-1896.