Colonial Lumber Co. v. Andelusia Nat. Bank

103 So. 343, 138 Miss. 566, 1925 Miss. LEXIS 69
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 16, 1925
DocketNo. 24601.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 103 So. 343 (Colonial Lumber Co. v. Andelusia Nat. Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colonial Lumber Co. v. Andelusia Nat. Bank, 103 So. 343, 138 Miss. 566, 1925 Miss. LEXIS 69 (Mich. 1925).

Opinion

Cook, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellant, Colonial Lumber Company, a corporation engaged in buying and selling lumber, instituted an attachment in chancery against Catón & Parker, lumber manufacturers, of Andelusia, Ala., and the Andelusia "National Bank, and the Jackson-State National Bank, of Jackson, Miss., the holder of the proceeds of a draft drawn on the appellant by Catón & Parker, and payable to the Andelusia National Bank. Upon the evidence offered in the court below a. decree in favor of the *575 Andelusia National Bank was entered, and from this decree this appeal was prosecuted.

From the averments of the original bill and the proof offered in support thereof it appears that the appellant was engaged in the business of buying and selling yellow pine lumber at wholesale, buying the same from .manufacturers to be shipped, to destinations throughout the country in car lots; that it purchased from Catón & Parker several shipments of lumber which were declined by the consignees to whom it had sold the same, because it had been defectively manufactured and did not meet the requirements of the consignees or the specifications of the appellant; and that by reason of this breach on the part of Catón & Parker the appellant had sustained losses amounting to six hundred thirteen dollars and fifty-two cents. In order to recover this loss, the appellant conceived the idea of ordering from Catón & Parker another ear of lumber, and attaching in the hands of a Jackson, Miss., bank the proceeds of a draft to be drawn for the purchase price of the car of lumber, and in pursuance of this plan the appellant purchased a car of lumber from Catón & Parker, with instructions to ship the same to the Foster Lumber Company, of Athens, Ohio, and draw upon the appellant for eighty per cent, of the purchase price. Thereafter Catón &> Parker shipped the car of lumber as directed, and drew a draft on the appellant for the sum of six hundred and fifty-six dollars payable to the Andelusia National Bank, and deposited the same in the said Andelusia National Bank. The Andelusia National Bank credited the account of Catón & Parker with the full amount of the draft, and thereafter forwarded the draft to the Jackson-State National Bank of Jackson, Miss., for collection and remittance to the Andelusia National Bank, and the amount of the draft was paid by the drawee to the said Jackson-State National Bank, and immediately the proceeds of the draft were attached under the original bill filed in this cause against Catón & Parker, the Andelusia National Bank, and the Jackson-State National Bank.

*576 Catón So Parker or the Catón' & Parker Lumber Company did not answer the bill of complaint, but the Andelusia National Bank filed an answer denying the material averments of the bill and the right of the appellant to subject the proceeds of the draft to its claim against Oaton & Parker, and averring that it was a holder in due course of the draft in question, and consequently that it was the owner of the proceeds of the draft, and the same were not subject to attachment for a debt due or alleged to be due by the defendant Catón So Parker Lumber Company, to the complainant.

At the time the draft in question was paid by the appellant, and at the time of the filing of this original bill, the appellant had no reason to believe that there would be any breach of contract by Catón So Parker as to this last car, but when the car arrived at its destination it was refused by consignee on account of being defective in grade'and quality, and after considerable controversy over this shipment, with the consent of Catón & Parker, it was finally disposed of to another party at a loss of $368.20. At the trial of the cause, over the objection of the appellee, the appellant was permitted to amend its original bill so as to sue for the loss sustained upon this last car, and by cross-appeal the appellee assigns as error the action of the court in allowing this amendment.

The cashier of the appellee the Andelusia National Bank testified that the Catón & Parker Lumber Company was a regular customer of appellee; that it was the custom of this lumber company to handle drafts on their customers through the appellee bank, the bank taking actual ownership of the drafts and crediting the proceeds to the Catón So Parker Lumber Company subject to' their check; that the appellee did not accept the particular draft in question as a collection item, but accepted it as a cash item and immediately credited the account of the Catón & Parker Lumber Company with the full amount of the draft. The exact status of the account of the Catón So Parker Lumber Company with the appellee between the deposit of the draft and the filing, *577 of this suit is not developed in the record, the only testimony bearing upon' this point being the answer of the cashier of the appellee to the following interrogatory:

“If you have stated that the face of this draft was credited to Catón & Parker by your bank, state whether this amount was, before this suit, or has been subsequently, drawn out by Catón & Parker?”

To this question, he replied: “The amount of this draft was drawn out by Catón & Parker Lumber Company before this suit.”

The deposition of this witness was taken sixteen months after the suit was filed, and he testified that the Catón & Parker Lumber Company was then indebted to the bank in the sum of about five thousand dollars and that it then had on deposit with the bank the sum of one thousand five hundred eighty-six dollars and seventy-four cents, but there was no effort whatever to show the state of this account between the time of the deposit of the draft and the filing of the suit, further than this state'ment of the cashier of the bank that the amount of this draft had been checked out before this suit.

Under no view of this case would the appellant be entitled to recover any part of the proceeds of this draft as against the appellee, the purchaser thereof, for losses sustained by reason of defective lumber in shipments made prior to the one covered by the particular draft and bill of lading, and for which losses the original suit was filed. In the case of Bank v. Searles, 81 Miss. 169, 32 So. 314, it was held that a bank which purchased a draft with bill of lading attached occupies, as to the consignee, the situation of the consignor only as to the goods represented by the particular draft and bill of lading, and that the consignee, after paying the draft and receiving the bill of lading, cannot subject the proceeds of the draft in the hands of a collecting bank to his demand for damages or losses sustained on other and prior shipments of goods, although they may have been included in one contract of sale. The bill as originally filed sought to recover only losses on prior and wholly disconnected *578 shipments, and consequently the court below was correct in denying recovery for these losses. There is an additional reason why this action of the court was correct, and that is, the appellant utterly failed to prove that any such losses had been sustained.

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Bluebook (online)
103 So. 343, 138 Miss. 566, 1925 Miss. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colonial-lumber-co-v-andelusia-nat-bank-miss-1925.