Georgia, Florida & Alabama Railway Co. v. Blish Milling Co.

82 S.E. 784, 15 Ga. App. 142, 1914 Ga. App. LEXIS 46
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 11, 1914
Docket5514
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 82 S.E. 784 (Georgia, Florida & Alabama Railway Co. v. Blish Milling Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Georgia, Florida & Alabama Railway Co. v. Blish Milling Co., 82 S.E. 784, 15 Ga. App. 142, 1914 Ga. App. LEXIS 46 (Ga. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

Russell, C. J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) The de[146]*146murrer includes four grounds of objection to the petition, which we shall consider seriatim.

1. In the first ground complaint is made that the city court of Bainbridge “is without jurisdiction of the, subject-matter of the case in question, the cause of action being a contract of bailment, entered into by and between the Blish Milling Company and the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Bailway Company.” It is contended that the defendant was not directly connected with the contract, and that the action should have been brought against the initial carrier; or that if the present defendant was suable at all, the remedy against it was an action for damages, under the act of Congress of June 29, 1906, regulating interstate transportation, known as the Hepburn act. 34 Stat. 584 (H. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 1284). Even though it be true that the shipment is controlled by the Hepburn act, we fail to see that the city court of Bainbridge is by that fact deprived of jurisdiction.

We think the ruling upon this ground of the demurrer is controlled by the decision of this court in Southern Railway Co. v. Morrison, 8 Ga. App. 647 (70 S. E. 91). In that case Morrison brought suit in trover against the railway company in Monroe county, to recover cotton alleged to have been delivered to it in that county, for shipment to. Macon, in Bibb county, and by his own testimony was only able to show that he had delivered the cotton to an agent of the defendant in Monroe county, and at the Lime of the motion for nonsuit he had not shown that the cotton had not been shipped away from Monroe county, and therefore he failed to prove the venue; because he alleged an affirmative tort, and failed to show that the actual conversion did not take place in Bibb, or some other county. After Morrison had shown that the cotton was delivered to the carrier at a point in Monroe county, and not in Macon, thus, as stated by Judge Powell, “showing the loss, but not necessarily the conversion, the defendant came in and showed that the cotton had never been shipped out of Monroe county;” and this court held that an action, of trover for conversion may be maintained against a carrier in the county where the conversion took place; and that “as the defendant’s own testimony affirmatively disclosed that the presumed conversion took place at the point of shipment and not elsewhere, it consequently disclosed that if the plaintiff had a cause of action, he had one that lay within the venue where the suit was pending.”

[147]*147The fact that in the Hepburn act there is no reference to proceedings in trover suggests that Congress, not having dealt with the remedy provided by an action in trover, had left to each State the free use of that remedy at its option. However, in the present case, if we look beyond its technical denomination, the scope and effect of the action is nothing more than that of an action for damages against the delivering carrier, suggested by learned counsel for the plaintiff in error as the plaintiff’s appropriate remedy. If an action for damages can be maintained against a delivering carrier, without the necessity of proving that the delivering carrier itself caused the damage (Way v. Sou. Ry. Co., 132 Ga. 677, 64 S. E. 1066), and an action of trover can be maintained upon a constructive conversion evidenced only by the failure to deliver, it would seem clear, under the ruling in Morrison’s case, supra, as well as under the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in North Penn. R. Co. v. Commercial National Bank, infra, that trover may be maintained against the last carrier when it is shown that the last carrier actually converted the property. In such a case clearly the venue would be where the conversion occurred.

2. In the second ground of the demurrer it is'insisted that “the petition sets up no cause of action against the defendant.” • The principles stated in the second headnote are well settled. The bill of lading, according to the uncontradicted testimony, was not presented or demanded, and the draft had not been paid, at the timo the defendant turned the car of flour over to the Draper-Garrett Grocery Company; and, under the terms of the contract, the carrier had agreed to deliver the shipment only to the Blish Milling Company, at Bainbridge, Georgia, or to its order, as might appear by the endorsement on the bill of lading. “If for any reason the seller, at the time of the shipment and delivery of the goods to the common carrier, takes a bill of lading to his own order, and attaches thereto a draft for the purchase-money, he thereby expresses his intention to retain the title until the draft is paid, or accepted and secured; and where this method of shipment is adopted the carrier becomes the agent of the seller or consignor, and would be authorized to deliver the goods only on the surrender to it of the bill of lading.” Southern Ry. Co. v. Strozier, 10 Ga. App. 157 (73 S. E. 42.) See also Erwin v. Harris, 87 Ga. 335 (13 S. E. 513), and Moss v. Sell, 8 Ga. App. 588 (70 S. E. 18). On an “order notify” [148]*148shipment, where a draft upon the person to whom the goods were to be delivered upon payment of the draft was attached to the bill of lading, so endorsed as to give a bank control of the possession of the goods, the delivery of the goods to the drawee without requiring payment of the draft was held to be a conversion, subjecting the bank to an action of trover at the instance of the owner. Hobbs v. Chicago Packing Co., 98 Ga. 576 (25 S. E. 584, 58 Am. St. R. 320). The milling company, by electing to retain title until payment of the draft, sold the goods for cash. The railway company, without any regard for the milling company’s rights or wishes, and in violation of its expressed intention, undertook to let the Draper-Garrett Grocery Company have the flour on time, or without paying the draft; and, of course, this must be held to be a conversion. It is the wrongful exercise of dominion over another’s property that makes a conversion. It is not necessary that the proof show that the defendant applied it to his own use; it need only be shown that he dealt with the property as if it were his own and in defiance of the owner’s rights. It is entirely immaterial that the conversion was not for his own use or that he derived no benefit therefrom. Merchants & Miners Transportation Co. v. Moore, 124 Ga. 482 (52 S. E. 802). Whenever goods which the consignor has shipped to his own order are delivered without production of the bill of lading, the delivery is at the carrier’s own risk, and subjects the carrier to liability in trover for the conversion. Boatmen’s Savings Bank v. W. & A. R. Co., 81 Ga. 221 (7 S. E. 125); Northern Penn. R. Co. v. Commercial National Bank, 123 U. S. 727 (8 Sup. Ct. 266, 31 L. ed. 287).

3. It is insisted, however, by counsel for plaintiff in error, that the milling company was precluded from bringing this action, by reason of the plaintiff’s failure to comply with the stipulations in the third section of the bill of lading, which, in case of failure to make delivery, require the consignor to make a written claim for damages within four months.

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Bluebook (online)
82 S.E. 784, 15 Ga. App. 142, 1914 Ga. App. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/georgia-florida-alabama-railway-co-v-blish-milling-co-gactapp-1914.