Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. v. First National Bank

43 P.2d 1078, 38 P.2d 48, 150 Or. 172, 1934 Ore. LEXIS 152
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 14, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 43 P.2d 1078 (Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. v. First National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. v. First National Bank, 43 P.2d 1078, 38 P.2d 48, 150 Or. 172, 1934 Ore. LEXIS 152 (Or. 1934).

Opinions

*185 BEAN, J.

By virtue of the stipulation, this suit is rendered practically a suit in interpleader. The bank asserts that it is entitled to so much of the moneys in the trust fund as is necessary for the repayment of the moneys borrowed from it by the Henry D. Davis Lumber Company and secured by the pledge of these accounts. The receiver asserts a right to the balance remaining in the trust fund, after the satisfaction of the bank’s interest therein. Plaintiffs assert a right to receive from the fund the price for which the lumber was sold to the Henry D. Davis Lumber Company, and contend that so long as the lumber remained in transit the right of stoppage in transitu could be asserted by them: 55 C. J. 911, § 893.

At the outset, we are burdened with the thought that an innocent party must suffer a loss. Fraud is not pleaded or suggested in this case on the part of any of the parties. We mention this because some of the cases *186 cited by appellants involved, and are governed by, the question of fraud.

As a general rule, both at common law and under statutory provisions in some jurisdictions, where the right has not been waived, an unpaid seller, who has parted with the possession of goods to a carrier for transportation to the buyer, may, if the buyer is or becomes insolvent, stop the goods in transit, that is, he may resume possession of the goods so long as they are in the course of transit, and may retain them until payment or tender of the price: 55 C. J. 907, § 889. The right may be exercised by any person who, as between himself and the buyer, may be considered as an unpaid seller: 55 C. J. 910, § 892. There is no particular method required for exercising this right: Frame v. Oregon Liquor Co., 48 Or. 272 (85 P. 1009, 86 P. 791). The right of stoppage in transitu extends not only to the property itself but also extends to the proceeds of the property: 55 C. J. 910, § 891. The right may be asserted not only against an insolvent buyer but also against ordinary purchasers or transferees of the buyer to whom a bill of lading has not been properly transferred, and against an assignee for the benefit of creditors, or a receiver appointed for the estate of the buyer: 55 C. J. 911, § 893.

The right of stoppage in transitu is not termi- ■ nated until there has been a final delivery of the goods to the vendee or his agent at the place named by the vendee to the vendor as the place of final delivery or ultimate destination of the goods. Delivery at an intermediate point or delivery to a person acting as a carrier or forwarding agent will not terminate the right: Aguirre v. Parmelee, 22 Conn. 473; Markwald v. Creditors, 7 Cal. 213; Blackman v. Pierce, 23 Cal. 508.

*187 Leaving out of consideration, for the present, the shipment to Bremerton, Washington, Parcel 7, by means of a scow, let us notice particularly the arrangements for the shipping and the ultimate destination of the lumber in question. A sample of the order for the lumber in this regard is as follows:

“Portland, Oregon,
Our Order N. 8612-A Feb. 13,1932.
To Weyerhaeuser Sales Company, Cargo Department, Tacoma, Wash. Ship to Henry D. Davis Lumber Company, Ship’s Tackle Mill Dock, at Longview, Washington.
Send Invoice to Henry D. Davis Lumber Co., Portland, Ore.
When In stock — to load the SS........
Route Vessel destined to Boston, Mass. [Italics ours]
Terms 100% advance less 2% discount 15 days.
Price FAS Ship’s Tackle Mill Dock, Wash. Where vessel can always lie safely afloat.”

Then follows the description of the lumber. It will, therefore, be seen that it was understood by the vendors, the plaintiffs, and the vendee, the Henry D. Davis Lumber Company, that after payment therefor, the lumber was to be shipped to its final destination, Boston, Mass., and other places on the Atlantic coast. The plaintiffs were the sellers and have never been paid for the lumber. But little is said in the record in regard to how far the lumber was moved from the mill to the dock. The Henry D. Davis Lumber Company, the vendee, caused the lumber to be consigned to third parties at different points on the Atlantic coast. The plaintiffs, the sellers, were not privy to that arrangement. They did not waive the right to be paid cash “In Exchange for Documents” and were not bound by it, and they *188 exercised the right of stoppage in transitu against a third party, consignee: Aguirre v. Parmelee, supra.

Except in one instance, the hills of lading were not transferred to the bank. There was an assignment made of the account or invoice, but we mention the matter as though a straight bill of lading had been transferred.

The Henry D. Davis Lumber Company made up invoices to the government and delivered copies thereof to the bank with a form of assignment, attempting to assign “the within invoices”. The bank then loaned the Henry D. Davis Lumber Company a sum of money, taking its unsecured promissory note for the amount with the verbal agreement that the Henry D. Davis Lumber Company would send the original invoices and bills of lading to the Navy Department, endeavor to collect the money, and pay its note to the bank from the proceeds if and when collected. In some instances a copy of the bill of lading was attached to the copy of invoice delivered to the bank, and in others not; in some instances the bill of lading had not even been issued. There was no attempt to assign or transfer the bill of lading or the original bill of lading or the original invoice. The transaction amounted to an equitable assignment : Island Pond Nat. Bank v. Lacroix, 104 Vt. 282 (158 Atl. 684); Henry v. Black, 213 Pa. 620 (63 Atl. 250).

Bills of lading, in a qualified and restricted sense, have the attribute of negotiability and are frequently described as quasi negotiable. But while the transfer of bills of lading will pass the title to the goods, unless the common-law has been modified by statute, these instruments are not negotiable in the sense in which the term is applied to bills and notes and other *189 negotiable instruments of a like character. And this is so, even when the bill of lading in terms runs to order or assigns. The rights of the parties are not to be determined by the application of rules which control the transfer of commercial paper. Although it has sometimes been said that a bill of lading is negotiable, nothing more is meant by this than that the transfer of the bill of lading passes to the transferee only such right or title as the transferor had to the goods therein described, and the negotiability, even to this limited extent, maybe destroyed by printing across the face of the instrument words “not negotiable”: 10 C. J. 205, § 271.

Tersely stated, the transfer of a straight bill of lading will not cut off the seller’s right of stoppage in transitu.

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43 P.2d 1078, 38 P.2d 48, 150 Or. 172, 1934 Ore. LEXIS 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weyerhaeuser-timber-co-v-first-national-bank-or-1934.