Getts v. Champion
Getts v. Champion
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from a directed verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $1,669. Defendants were in the piano- business at Williston, under a written contract that plaintiff ship to them, at •Williston, eight pianos to be .sold on commission, the plaintiff to receive from such sales a specified net sum. By written contract the defendants agreed thus:
We agree to send the cash to you for each and every instrument separately as soon as sold.
We agree to furnish all necessary funds for the payment of freight charges. . .
It is expressly understood and agreed that nothing in this agreement shall be in any sense construed as constituting the sale of such instruments or giving us an interest of any kind whatever in them.
Then there are figures showing the price agreed upon for the different styles of pianos.
Under the agreement plaintiff shipped to the defendants six pianos, making eight pianos, with two which were on hand and which were included in the agreement. Defendants received the pianos, paid freight on them, put them into their store, but neglected to insure them, and in a few dayfe the store and the pianos were burned.
The suit is to recover the net invoice wholesale price which plaintiffs were to receive for the pianos.
The defense is that the defendants could not insure the pianos, because they had no title or interest in them, and that at the time of the loss the pianos were in possession of the plaintiff’s agent, whom they had sent to make a special advertising sale of the pianos. It does appear that the plaintiff corresponded with the defendants, purposing to aid them in making a special boom sale of the pianos, and they sent out boom literature to persons whose names and addresses were given them by the defendants. They sent their agent to aid the defendants in advertising and making the boom sale. And this the plaintiff was glad to do because of his interest in the sale. The defendants had exclusive possession and control of the pianos from the time they took them to their store, and in case of a sale the profits belonged to them. In regard to the contract to insure the pianos for the benefit of the plaintiff to the amount of the invoice price, it is no answer for defendants to say that they had no title or interest in the property. The contract was: “We agree to take good care of all instruments consigned to us,
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GEORGE W. GETTS v. WILLIAM J. CHAMPION and Frank B. Meyer, Copartners as Champion & Meyer
- Status
- Published