Sealite, Inc. v. Texas Warehouse Co. of Dallas

437 S.W.2d 896, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2061
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 14, 1969
DocketNo. 17238
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 437 S.W.2d 896 (Sealite, Inc. v. Texas Warehouse Co. of Dallas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sealite, Inc. v. Texas Warehouse Co. of Dallas, 437 S.W.2d 896, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2061 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

CLAUDE WILLIAMS, Justice.

Action to recover damages for conversion of personal property. Sealite, Inc. brought suit against Texas Warehouse Company of Dallas, Inc., alleging that it had stored certain goods and materials with the warehouse company and that such company had wrongfully and unlawfully converted same.

Defendant warehouse denied that it was guilty of conversion of the merchandise and, by trial amendment, alleged that it had delivered the personal property back to Sealite pursuant to instructions from one of its agents.

The case was tried before the court and a jury and in response to Special Issue No. 1 the jury found that the warehouse company did not convert any of the property owned by Sealite. In answer to Special Issues 5, 6 and 7 the jury found that one Raymond Blackburn had instructed the warehouse company to ship Sealite’s goods back to Sealite in California; that Blackburn had actual authority to give such instructions ; or that Blackburn had apparent authority to give such instructions concerning shipping of the goods. Prior to entry of judgment Sealite filed its motion for judgment non obstante veredicto in which it contended that there was no evidence to support the jury’s answers to Special Issues 5, 6 and 7 and that the answer of the jury to Special Issue No'. 1 should be set aside and disregarded because the warehouse company was guilty of conversion, as a matter of law, pursuant to the express provisions of the Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act. The trial court overruled the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto and rendered judgment based upon the jury’s verdict decreeing that Sealite take nothing against the warehouse company. Sealite appeals. We affirm.

Consideration and resolution of appellant’s points require a careful review of material antecedent facts. At all times material herein Texas Warehouse Company operated a warehouse for storing merchandise in the City of Dallas. Sealite, Inc. was a California corporation, duly admitted to do business in the State of Texas, having its principal place of business in California. In the early part of 1958 Sealite was looking for a warehouse in Dallas in which to store its merchandise and to conduct its business affairs which involved the sale of various plumbing supplies. Appellee warehouse company had quoted appellant its warehouse charges for storage and also advised appellant that it had available a small office which it would rent for $25 per month and a telephone answering service that would be $15 per month. In response to such offer, on February 18, 1958, appellant wrote a letter advising appellee that following an inspection of appellee’s facilities, its representative, Mr. H. A. Woods, had advised that appellee could render better service than any other company in Dallas. It was therein stated that a shipment of material was being forwarded from California to appellee’s warehouse. The letter contained this paragraph:

“Your Company is hereby authorized to release material or ship it to any customer that may place an order, either verbal or in writing. You are further authorized to release material or make shipments as requested by Mr. H. A. Woods, Jr. or Mr.,Rush O’Bryan, P. O. Box 24003, Houston, Texas.
“Shipments are to be made by common carrier, freight collect, unless the customer requests that freight be prepaid and invoiced. In the latter case prepay the freight and advise us of the charges to our account. ”

[898]*898Appellee received the initial shipment of merchandise from appellant and issued its non-negotiable warehouse receipt therefor, said receipt containing the following provision :

“Said property to be released only after payment of all storage, handling and other charges. The Texas Warehouse Co. claims a lien for all lawful charges for storage and preservation of goods, and also for lawful claims for money advanced, interest, insurance, transportation, labor, weighing, coopering and other charges and expenses relating to storage and handling of said goods. ”

Thereafter, from time to time appellee would release merchandise upon verbal request of various representatives of appellant to appellant’s customers in Dallas. These materials would be shipped to the customer by carriers based on bills of lading without necessity of surrender of warehouse receipts. From time to time appellee would bill appellant not only for storage charges but for inventories, bills of lading, expenses of classifying shipments, etc. Trouble developed between the parties concerning appellant’s failure to pay statements from appellee and on October 11, 1960 appellee wrote appellant complaining of the fact that appellant had been slow in paying its accounts. The letter said, in part: "As it is I now insist you forward a check in full by return mail, and keep your account on a current basis or make other arrangements for your merchandise. ”

Again, on October 18, 1960 appellee wrote áppellant calling their attention to the fact that they had not paid a freight bill covering merchandise shipped by appellee to appellant’s customer.

On October 14, 1960 appellant wrote ap-pellee contending that many of appellee’s bills were incorrect. Appellant said: “The suggestion you make to move our business elsewhere has merit. We will consider it carefully. ”

The record reveals that the basis for many of the disputes between the parties concerning charges grew out of transactions between Raymond Blackburn, who had succeeded others as the local representative and agent of appellant, and appellee company. On November 11, 1960 appellant wrote appellee a letter in which it reviewed a number of the invoices which had been forwarded in 1960 and contended that many charges, especially those authorized by Blackburn, were not justified. In one paragraph of this letter appellant said: “Mr. Blackburn is a salesman for our Company. He has no authority to employ you or anyone else to perform services for our Company at our expense. If he requested work done, charge such work to him.

In the same letter appellant said: “Demand is hereby made upon you to release all property belonging to us at once and to notify us of such release so that arrangements can be made to move it. If this is not done, any and all damages that we may sustain will be assessed against your Company.”

Following that letter Blackburn continued to be the agent and representative of appellant in Dallas and on December 1, December 20, December 22, 1960 and on January 17, 1961 appellee' company released and shipped C.O.D. various merchandise belonging to appellant on verbal instructions from Blackburn to Duncan Plumbing Company, Service Plumbing Company and Elm Fork Construction Company. On each of these occasions the money received from the sale of these goods was duly credited to appellant’s account.

On February 8, 1961, when the disputed account was less than $20, appellee delivered to Transcon Freight Lines all of the remaining merchandise billed by it and owned by appellant, same being consigned to Sealite, Inc.’s plant at San Leandro, California. The standard bill of lading was issued covering the merchandise shipped and it is without dispute that it was shipped [899]*899C.O.D., or freight charges collect. When the merchandise reached California appellant refused to accept same or pay the freight charges and receive the merchandise. Repeated demands were made upon appellant by Transcon to accept the merchandise.

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437 S.W.2d 896, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sealite-inc-v-texas-warehouse-co-of-dallas-texapp-1969.