Breakstone v. Buffalo Foundry & Machine Co.

79 Misc. 496, 141 N.Y.S. 159
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1913
StatusPublished

This text of 79 Misc. 496 (Breakstone v. Buffalo Foundry & Machine Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Breakstone v. Buffalo Foundry & Machine Co., 79 Misc. 496, 141 N.Y.S. 159 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1913).

Opinion

Whitaker, J.

When this case came on for trial the court ruled that it would hold that the time within which defendant had to regain possession of the machine and advertise the sale did not begin to run until the defendant had time by the use. of ordinary diligence to regain full possession of the machine. Plaintiffs’ counsel, it seems, mistakenly concluded that the ruling disposed of plaintiffs’ case and so stated; thereupon the complaint was dismissed. Then plaintiffs’ counsel moved for a new trial upon the ground of his mistake in making such a statement. I think that a new trial should be granted■ plaintiffs. The-defendant failed to comply with the statute. It appears by the stipulation entered into between plaintiffs and defendant that the last of the machine was loaded by defendant’s agents on the car or cars of the Lehigh Valley Bailroad Company on June 29, 1911, and that from that date plaintiffs had no control or authority over said machine, but the said machine was absolutely under the control of defendant, and the said twenty-ninth day of June was the day of retaking by the vendor. The fact that one of the cars broke down and that the new car was not loaded until July eleventh did not alter defendant’s control of the chattel, as the. machine was just as much under defendant’s control after the breakdown of the car and during the reloading as it was when defendant took it in charge on the said twenty-ninth day of June. The retaking of a chattel in such a case does not occur when [498]*498the vendor has transported the chattel to some place where it could be sold and delivered, but the retaking occurs when the vendor obtains absolute possession, control and authority over the chattel. In the case at bar defendant obtained such possession, control and authority on the said twenty-ninth day of June. Be that as it may, of the cars carrying the various parts of the machine the last car arrived in Buffalo on July fifteenth, so that the entire machine was in Buffalo long before the sale period began which was on July twenty-ninth, thirty days after the retaking of June twenty-ninth. Defendant contends that there was then no retaking, as the third car had not left plaintiffs’ plant, but was loaded upon the siding of the plaintiffs, and that there the car broke down, necessitating a transfer to another car, which did not leave plaintiffs’ plant until July eleventh. The stipulation of facts agreed upon and introduced in evidence states' that defendant’s servant went to plaintiffs’ plant and presented to plaintiffs a letter of introduction, which was made a part of the said stipulation, and then proceded to remove the machine. He loaded and started one car for Buffalo. “ Thereafter and on June 20 Lavett (defendant’s servant) similarly requisitioned two cars which were received June 26. * * * Thereafter and on June 29 he loaded the balance of said machine.” I am of the opinion that this act of loading the balance of .the machine on June twenty-ninth constitutes the completion of the act of retaking — the defendant had hired the cars and had loaded the last of the parts of the machine on June twenty-ninth. From that date the machine was absolutely under the control of deefendant. Defendant could have shipped it to any place it desired, and plaintiffs could not have controlled the disposition of the machine after June twenty-ninth, as the railroad company had contracted with the defendant and defendant had delivered the last of the machine to the railroad company for transportation. The said stipulation further states: “ The cars were loaded alongside of said creamery upon a siding used by plaintiffs and owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. * * *” Defendant’s contention that because the third car had not left the siding [499]*499it (defendant) had no possession is not sound, as the plaintiffs did not own or control the siding. The siding was owned by the railroad and the cars were controlled by defendant. Defendant’s further contention that because the machine was sold f. o. b. Buffalo the natural point of retaking would be Buffalo is not sound. The contract itself states that the machine shall be used only at the factory of plaintiffs at Truxton, Cortland county. -Plaintiffs had no right under the contract to transfer it to Buffalo, and defendant to “ retake ” it must have gone to the place where it was and taken charge and control of it, which it did, and took the last of it into its possession for transportation on the said twenty-ninth day of June. The stipulation states that' subsequently the car broke down and that the machine was removed to a new car by the same contractor who had assisted defendant’s servant, Lavett. I do not see anything to indicate that the breaking down of the car put the machine or any part of it again in the possession of the plaintiffs. The broken down car and the substituted car both belonged to the railroad company. Defendant’s servant’s contractor transferred the machine from one car to the other, and I do not think that plaintiffs could then, at the time of the breakdown of the car, have secured possession or control of the machine had they attempted so to do. Defendant quotes at length from Sloan v. National Surety Co., 74 App. Div. 420, as to- the taking of possession. That case is dissimilar to the case at bar. In that case it was held that the mere laying of hands on the property in question and then leaving it was not sufficient to give possession, but that there must be actual possession. In the case at bar the defendant took actual possession of the machine, and the last part of the machine passed into defendant’s possession on the twenty-ninth day of June. After the said twenty-ninth day of June plaintiffs did not have the actual or constructive possession of the said machine. The case of Sigal v. Hatch Co., 61 Misc. Rep. 332, cited by defendant, is not in point, as in that case the chattel was under the control of a city marshal, while in the case as bar the persons who took charge of the machine, on June twenty-ninth were [500]*500defendant’s agents and acting for the defendant. Under section 65 of the Personal Property Law (Consolidated Laws, ch. 41), plaintiffs then had thirty days to redeem, which gave them to July twenty-ninth. There was no redemption, and under the said section defendant was then required to sell the machine within the next thirty days, to-wit, before August twenty-eight. This was not done by defendant, and plaintiffs’ right of action thereupon accrued. Defendant’s contention that plaintiffs’ rights are acquired from a vendee “ too remote ” and not authorized by the statute, which limits the right of action to the conditional vendee and immediate successor, is not sound. The statute says (Pers. Prop. Law [Consol. Laws, chap. 41], § 65) that •“ the vendee or his successor ” may recover. Chicago R. Eq. Co. v. Merchants Bank, 136 U. S. 268, cited by defendant, is not in point. That case went to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Wisconsin and arose over a note executed in Illinois, and was governed by the statutes of Illinois. The court there held that the title remained in the vendor until the notes were paid, the title being so retained only by way of security for the payment of the notes, and the agreement for the retention for that purpose being a short form of chattel mortgage. Defendant also maintains that the trustee in bankruptcy had no interest in the contract herein or in this cause of action.

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Bluebook (online)
79 Misc. 496, 141 N.Y.S. 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/breakstone-v-buffalo-foundry-machine-co-nysupct-1913.