Snelling v. Arbuckle Bros.

30 S.E. 863, 104 Ga. 362, 1898 Ga. LEXIS 333
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 26, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 30 S.E. 863 (Snelling v. Arbuckle Bros.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snelling v. Arbuckle Bros., 30 S.E. 863, 104 Ga. 362, 1898 Ga. LEXIS 333 (Ga. 1898).

Opinion

Fish, J.

The case turns upon the proper legal construction to be given the written agreement or contract between Arbuckle Brothers and Allen. If, as contended by the defendants in error, the legal effect of the paper in question is to create between the parties thereto the relation of principal and factor, the latter selling the goods of the former under a del credere commission, then Arbuckle Brothers are entitled to the funds in the hands of Allen’s assignee, arising from accounts against customers to whom Allen had sold goods consigned to him by the Arbuckles. If, on the other hand, this paper, properly construed, rendered the relation of the parties that of vendor and purchaser, then Arbuckle Brothers were not entitled to the proceeds of these accounts. The contract is certainly a very extraordinary one and contains seemingly contradictory provisions. Some of its stiplations, if construed only in connection with others of a kindred nature, seem to indicate the creation of a del credere agency. Other stipulations, taken in connection with those which readily harmonize with them, clearly show a contract of sale. It appears to have been drawn for the purpose of enabling Arbuckle Brothers to “run with hare ” or “hold with the hounds,” according as, in the exigencies of a given case, their interest might dictate. On the one hand, to [366]*366hold Allen absolute^ bound, in any event, to pay for all goods shipped to him by the Arbuckles; on the other hand, in the event of his failure to pay and his insolvency, to enable them to successfully claim all unsold goods in Allen’s possession and the accounts, or their proceeds, against his customers, representing goods which he had sold but for which he had not paid Arbuckle Brothers. The contract must be construed in the light of all of its provisions, and the legal outcome of its several stipulations, construed together, must control its classification. The mere name which may have been given to it by the parties thereto can not change the legal effect of-its stipulations. In Heryford v. Davis, 102 U. S. 235, the Supreme Court of the United States construed a written contract between a car-manufacturing corporation and a railroad company to be a sale, notwithstanding the fact that the contract, in the language of the court, “industriously and repeatedly spoke of loaning the cars to the railroad company for hire for four months, and delivering them for use for hire.” Mr. Justice Strong, delivering the opinion of the court, said : “What, then, is the true construction of the contract? The answer to this question is not to be found in any name which the parties may have given to the instrument, and not alone in any particular provisions it contains, disconnected from all others, but in the ruling intention of the parties, gathered from all the language they have used. It is the legal effect of the whole which is to be sought for. The form of the instrument is of little account.” See, also, Hays v. Jordan, 85 Ga. 741; Cowan v. Singer Mfg. Co., 92 Tenn. 376; Singer Mfg. Co. v. Cole, 4 Lea, 439, s. c. 40 Am. Rep. 20.

Under the fifth clause of this contract, Allen was bound to remit to Arbuckle Brothers, at fixed times, the full price of each consignment, without regard to payments made to him by the customers to whom he sold the goods, or the terms upon which he sold to such customers, and without regard to whether any sales had been made by him or not; and he was bound, at such fixed times, to remit to the Arbuckles at a price fixed by them to him at the time when the goods were consigned to him. Allen’s obligation, then, was radically different from that of a mere del credere agent; for he did not simply guarantee to [367]*367Arbuckle Brothers that the customers to whom he sold their goods, on a credit, should pay them, through him, as their agent, the price for which the goods were sold to such purchasers, but he agreed, at the expiration of sixty days from each .consignment, to remit to Arbuckle Brothers full payment for the entire consignment, regardless of the question whether the goods of which such consignment consisted had been sold by him or not. If none of the goods of such consignment had been sold by Allen, he was just as much obligated to pay Arbuckle Brothers for them, at a price fixed by the latter at the time of the consignment, as he would have been if he had, in fact, sold all of the goods contained in the consignment. In keeping with and as if to emphasize this clause of the agreement, the tenth clause expressly stipulated that if, at the expiration of sixty days, Allen had not paid for the goods, the Arbucldes should have the right to draw on him for the price of the same. What stronger feature of a sale on sixty days time can there be than a stipulation which renders the consignee, from the moment the goods are received by him, absolutely and unconditionally bound, at the end of that time, to pay for them at a price fixed at the time they are consigned. As if the provisions which we have just been discussing were not enough to hold Allen bound, under any and all circumstances, to pay for the goods at the price fixed when they were consigned to him, the sixth clause provided that ho was to insure Arbuckle Brothers against any decline in the price of the goods. So if the market price fell the loss was Allen’s and not that of the Arbuckles. And, as if to balance this provision, the seventh clause provided that if the goods advanced in price Allen was to have the benefit of such advance. So if the market price rose the profit was Allen’s and not that of Arbuckle Brothers. Why should Allen assume the risk of any decline in the price or market value of the goods if they belonged to Arbuckle Brothers? Why should he be entitled to the benefit of any increase in the price or value of the goods, if they did not belong to him ? Why should he be compelled to pay for the goods at the end of sixty days, whether he had sold them or not, if he vras simply an agent to sell the goods for the consignors? These -earmarks indicate a sale, and, [368]*368taking them together, it is very difficult, notwithstanding the apparently conflicting provisions of the instrument, to escape the conclusion that such is the legal effect of this contract.

When we further consider that no account of sales was to be rendered by the so-called “factor” to his alleged principals; that he was not required to furnish to them the names of the parties to whom he sold upon a credit and the terms of the credit which he extended, nor to report or transmit to them the evidences of indebtedness, if any, which he received from such customers; that no matter how much cash he might accumulate from sales within the sixty days, he was under no obligation to remit it to them until the sixty days had elapsed, and then was bound to remit, not simply as a del credere agent accounting to his principals for the money of such principals in his hands and for the amount of matured indebtedness against customers who had failed to meet their obligations, but to remit the whole amount of the entire consignment; and that discounts, such as are usual in cases of sales upon time, were to be allowed upon all bills paid before the expiration of sixty days from their dates, the conclusion seems unavoidable that the true legal relation between the parties to this agreement was that of vendors and vendee. The stipulation that the title to the goods should remain in the Arbuckles until Allen had paid for them is not inconsistent with a contract of sale. It might make the sale, as between the parties, to that extent conditional.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 S.E. 863, 104 Ga. 362, 1898 Ga. LEXIS 333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snelling-v-arbuckle-bros-ga-1898.