Metropolitan Commercial Corp. v. Larkin Co.

168 Misc. 31, 4 N.Y.S.2d 326, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 867
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJune 22, 1936
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 168 Misc. 31 (Metropolitan Commercial Corp. v. Larkin 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
Metropolitan Commercial Corp. v. Larkin Co., 168 Misc. 31, 4 N.Y.S.2d 326, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 867 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1936).

Opinion

MacGregor, J.

This is an action in replevin. The complaint sets forth two causes of action. In the first, plaintiff demands possession of twenty-three automobiles, it claiming title to them by reason of its possession and title to duly indorsed, negotiable warehouse receipts for each of said cars, issued by the defendant. In the second cause of action, plaintiff demands possession of seventeen of the cars mentioned in the first cause of action upon the additional claim of title to them by reason of its being the owner of chattel mortgages thereon, copies of which have been duly filed.

Plaintiff is a domestic finance corporation engaged in the business of loaning money on various forms of security. Defendant is a domestic corporation engaged in the storage business as a public warehouse.

Prior to April 1,1930, the Quale Garage Company, Inc., of Buffalo, N. Y., entered into an agreement with defendant for the storage of cars and trucks. By the terms of the said agreement, Quale Garage Company, Inc., agreed to pay three dollars per month or fraction of a month from the date of storage on new autos and trucks stored, aud two dollars per month or fraction thereof from the date of storage on old automobiles, payable monthly in advance. Said agreement was modified about June 1, 1930, to two dollars per month on each auto and truck.

[33]*33Plaintiff entered into an arrangement with the Quale Company to make loans to it on various of its autos and trucks. Upon the delivery to defendant by the Quale Company of each car for the purpose of storage, the defendant issued and delivered to the Quale Company a negotiable warehouse receipt therefor. Thereafter, and on the same day, Quale Company would deliver said warehouse receipts to plaintiff and execute a mortgage to plaintiff covering one or more of such automobiles, and receive a check from plaintiff in the amount of the release value, as set forth in such chattel mortgage. From time to time the Quale Company withdrew automobiles and trucks from the defendant’s warehouse and removed them to its showroom for the purpose of display and sale. It was the practice upon the withdrawal from the defendant’s warehouse of one or more of the cars for the Quale Company, immediately preceding the withdrawal of an automobile, to deliver to plaintiff its check in the amount of the release value shown in the most recent chattel mortgage covering the same, and thereupon plaintiff delivered to the Quale Company the warehouse receipt for the automobile to be withdrawn, which the Quale Company-surrendered to defendant. Thereupon, the Quale Company removed said automobile from defendant’s warehouse to its showroom and delivered to plaintiff a new chattel mortgage on said automobile, and, upon the delivery of said mortgage, plaintiff delivered to the Quale Company its check in the amount of the release value stated in said new chattel mortgage. When said automobile was returned to defendant’s warehouse the Quale Company delivered to plaintiff its check in the amount of the release value set forth in the last executed chattel mortgage on said automobile, a new warehouse receipt was delivered by defendant to the Quale Company, and immediately thereafter said warehouse receipt was delivered to plaintiff and a new chattel mortgage given by the Quale Company to plaintiff, and plaintiff delivered to the Quale Company its check for the release value stated in the new mortgage.

As a result of this practice each of the seventeen cars which are the subject of the second cause of action was mortgaged by the Quale Company to plaintiff at least twice after the execution of the mortgages. None of these mortgages has been discharged of record, and each of them is of the same form as the certified copy of mortgage attached to the stipulation between the parties herein, signed the 21st day of February, 1936.

No claim is made by the plaintiff that it is entitled to the possession of six of the cars by virtue of its chattel mortgages but by virtue of the negotiable receipts.

[34]*34In each of the mortgages, plaintiff covenanted to execute a release to the Quale Company of any one of the autos therein and thereby mortgaged, upon the payment to it by the Quale Company of the sum therein stated to be the release value of the said auto.

On or about April 1, 1931, the Quale Company was indebted to defendant in the sum of $6,617.80 for the storing of its cars. On or about the same date the plaintiff tendered to defendant its warehouse receipts of most recent dates for the cars, duly indorsed by the Quale Company and $378 in money, the storage charges due upon the cars as to which the negotiable receipts had been delivered and demanded from defendant the delivery to plaintiff of said automobiles. Defendant refused to deliver said cars to plaintiff, claiming that it had the right to hold said cars for storage charges incurred by the Quale Company upon said cars and other cars theretofore stored with it, and which had been released by defendant prior to the issuance of said warehouse receipts.

It is also stipulated that at the time of the issuance of the last warehouse receipt, under which plaintiff claims, the Quale Company was indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $12,842.79 in addition to promissory notes which were executed to the plaintiff at the same time as the last chattel mortgages were executed upon the seventeen automobiles, and which promissory notes represent the release value of the said automobiles.

It is also stipulated that at the time of the commencement of the action the Quale Company was indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $14,421.22, exclusive of the total release values of the automobiles in question.

By arrangement between the parties the automobiles in question were sold for the sum of $9,203.81. It is stipulated that the sale price constituted the fair and reasonable value of each of the cars. The amount realized is held by the plaintiff by agreement between the parties pending the termination of this action.

The claim of the plaintiff is that it is entitled to the possession of the twenty-three cars by virtue of the negotiable receipts issued by the defendant and, in addition, claims that it is entitled to the possession of seventeen of the cars by virtue of the chattel mortgages.

The defendant claims that it is entitled to possession by reason of the fact that it has a lien against them for unpaid storage charges as to the particular cars and other cars which have been surrendered.

The initial question is the right of possession in the defendant for enforcement of a lien for unpaid storage charges as to these particular cars and other cars which have been surrendered by the defendant. The claim of the defendant in this respect is that the negotiable receipts which were issued by it subjected these cars to the unpaid storage charges as to other cars.

[35]*35Section 112 of the General Business Law gives a lien to a warehouseman against all goods deposited by an owner for storage and other enumerated charges.

Section 113 of the same statute provides for enforcement of the lien created by section 112 against other goods of the same owner in the possession of the warehouseman, whenever deposited.

The rights of the warehouseman under sections 112 and 113 are limited by section 115, which section provides:

“ Negotiable receipt must state charges for which lien is claimed.

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Related

Metropolitan Commercial Corp. v. Larkin Co.
257 A.D. 612 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 Misc. 31, 4 N.Y.S.2d 326, 1936 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metropolitan-commercial-corp-v-larkin-co-nysupct-1936.