Southern Railway Co. v. Hodgson Bros.
Southern Railway Co. v. Hodgson Bros.
Opinion of the Court
Hodgson Brothers Company brought suit against Harris Brothers Grain Company, a non-resident of this State, by attachment and garnishment, the summons of garnishment being served upon Southern Railway Company, July 14, 1915. On May 19, 1916, the plaintiff obtained judgment on the said attachment against Harris Brothers Grain Company for $175 principal and cost of suit, and a judgment against the Southern Railway Company for the same amount on the garnishment. In its answer to the summons of garnishment the Southern Railway Company denied being indebted to the defendant, and the matter was submitted to the trial judge, acting as both court and jury. The facts may be briefly outlined as follows: In June, 1915, the Port Worth & Rio Grande Railway Company received from Harris Brothers Grain Company at Rochelle, Texas, certain sacks of oats, which, as shown by the bill of exceptions, were consigned to Harris Brothers Grain Company, Greenville, S. C., but which the garnishee’s amended answer states were consigned to the Acme Peed Company, Greenville, S. C., with instruction from the shipper to notify Hodgson Brothers Company at Athens, Ga., upon the arrival of the ear at Greenville, S. C. A bill of lading was -issued with draft attached, drawn by Harris Brothers Grain Company, for $559.30, with instruction that the amount of the paid freight-bill was to be deducted from this amount and accepted as cash. This shipment of oats was received by the Southern Railway Company from its connecting carrier, and by it transported to Greenville, S. C., where the oats arrived on or about July 10, 1915. Meanwhile the invoice covering the shipment had been transferred by Hodgson Brothers Company to the Acme Peed Company, of Greenville, S. C., and, upon the order of Hodgson Brothers Company, Harris Brothers Grain Company having notified the Southern Railway
After the summons of garnishment was served on July 14, 1915, on the Southern Bailway. Company, the defendant Harris Brothers Grain Company brought suit- against the initial carrier, the Fort Worth & Bio Grande Bailway Company, and the Southern Bailway -Company, in the county court of Dalla’s county, Texas, on account of the alleged wrongful delivery of this car of oats, and on February 17, 1916, a judgment was obtained against the Fort Worth & Bio Grande Bailway Company for $399.10, the Southern Bailway Company’s plea of privilege having been sustained by the Texas court, and the suit as to it having been dismissed. The judge having found against the garnishee, the Southern Bailway Company, it made a motion for a new trial, upon the overruling of which it excepted.
We hold that the court properly gave Hodgson Brothers Company judgment against the Southern Bailway Company in the garnishment proceedings. Civil Code (1910), § 5124.
Judgment affirmed.
070rehearing
on rehearing.
The decision in this ease is right both in law and good morals. The amended answer of the Southern Bailway Company is in part'as follows: “2. That the car of oats was received by your respondent, Southern Bailway Company, from its connecting carrier, and by it transported to Greenville, South Carolina, on or about the lO.th day of July, 1915. The Acme Feed Company held the invoice from Hodgson Brothers, Athens, Georgia, dated June 15th, for the amount of $559.30, and upon the
We recognize the general principle that “A shipper, by consigning goods to his own order and attaching to' the bill of lading a draft for the price of the goods, indicates an unequivocal intention to retain title to them until his draft is paid,” and that “any distinct act of dominion, inconsistent with the owner’s right, wrongfully exercised over his property by another, may amount to a conversion, whether the wrongdoer exercised such dominion for his own' use or for the use of a third person.” However, in the instant case the Southern Bailway Company has not wrongfully exercised any act of dominion over the property of Harris Brothers Grain Company, but it simply carried out its orders, and, upon the payment of the purchase price, delivered the oats to the person to whom they were consigned and to whom .it was otherwise ordered to deliver them. What became of the bill of lading is not shown by the evidence. In the cases cited by the plaintiff in error the goods were delivered without the knowledge or consent of the shipper; there-was “loss of goods by wrong delivery, negligently made by the carrier.” Of course, in such cases, there was a conversion. In this case the plaintiff in error insists that there was a conversion because the oats were not delivered in ¿ccordance with instructions of the letter of Harris Brothers Grain Company to the Southern Bailway Company on July 16th. .This position is untenable. The oats at that time had already been delivered to the Acme Feed Company, as shown by the 4th paragraph of the amended . answer' copied above. If the railway company would, have the right to deliver the oats to Hayes, a third person, on “another order from the Harris Brothers Grain Company,” without additional transfer, assignment, or endorsement of the bill of lading, a fortiori, they had the right to deliver them, by similar instructions, to the party to whom they were consigned. Should Harris Brothers Grain Company require payment of the entire amount of their judgment, they would thus twice receive pay for the car of oats. As before stated, there is not a word of evidence in the record to show what became of the bill of lading,' but, grant
But apart from what is said just above, Hodgson Brothers Company should not'suffer by reason of the fact that such judgment was rendered. The money from the sale of the oats was seized by judicial process. In Wells Fargo & Company Express v. Ford, 238 U. S. 503 (35 Sup. Ct. 864, 59 L. ed. 1431), the first headnote is as follows: “The carrier can not be held responsible for goods taken from its custody by valid legal process provided it gives the owner prompt notice of the suit so that he may have an opportunity to protect his interest,” and Mr. Justice Lamar, speaking for the court, said (p. 506) : “If the carrier gives such notice and the consignor fails to appear, or fails in his defense, and the property is seized, held, or sold under judicial process, the carrier can not thereafter be held responsible for yielding to what must then be treated as vis major.” In Merz v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., 86 Minn. 33 (90 N. W. 7), is the following headnote: “It is a sufficient defense in an action for conversion brought against a common carrier to prove that there has been a seizure of the property under legal process, but the burden of proof is upon such carrier to show that the process was regular and valid upon its face. It is the duty also of the carrier, in ease of a seizure under process, to notify the shipper promptly of the pendency of the legal proceedings in order to enable him to make a proper defense. If this notice is promptly and properly given, an action for conversion will not lie, for the carrier has a right to presume that the party notified will attend to his property and protect it in the suit.” See also Ohio & Mississippi Ry. Co. v. Yohe, 51 Ind. 181 (19 Am. R. 727); Blevin v. Hudson River R. Co., 36 N. Y. 403.
In this ease it can make no difference that the proceeds of the sale of the oats, and not the oats themselves, were seized. If the
Judgment adhered to.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.