161 Mass. 576 | Mass. | 1894
There was an implied warranty that the coal should be merchantable. Murchie v. Cornell, 155 Mass. 60. The report recites that the court, trying the case without a jury, found as a fact that the coal was not merchantable, and ruled, against the plaintiffs’ objection, that the defendants had the right to reject the coal on its arrival at New Bedford. We think that this ruling was right. Pope v. Allis, 115 U. S. 363. Cleveland Rolling Mill v. Rhodes, 121 U. S. 255, 261. Bryant v. Isburgh, 13 Gray, 607. Wiley v. Athol, 150 Mass. 426, 434. Smith v. Hale, 158 Mass. 178. Grimoldby v. Wells, L. R. 10 C. P. 391. Whether, in such a case as this, the title to the property passes to the
If it be assumed in favor of the plaintiffs that the title to this coal passed to the defendants when it was selected by the plaintiffs and laden free on board upon the barge at Weehawken, and when bills of lading were given to the plaintiffs under which the cargo was to be delivered to the defendants or their assigns at the port of New Bedford, they paying the freight, we are yet of opinion that the rulings at the trial were correct. If the title passed to the defendants it was a conditional title, and the condition was that the coal should be found to be of the quality purchased, and the defendants could reject the coal if upon examination it did not conform to the implied warranty that it should be merchantable.
The question is, on the assumption that the title passed to the defendants, whether the defendants did all required of them to revest in the plaintiffs the title to the coal. The report of the presiding justice recites that the plaintiffs requested him to rule that, “ in order to revest the title in the plaintiffs it was necessary for the defendants to assign the bill of lading or tender plaintiffs a release of all interest in or claim to the cargo. But I declined so to rule, and ruled that the defendants had the right to refuse to accept the cargo at New Bedford without tendering back the bill of lading and the invoice, or either of them, and without assigning or transferring to the plaintiffs any interest or legal title in the cqal which was or might be in the defendants ” , and to this ruling the plaintiffs excepted.
The court found that the only bill of lading sent to the defendants was the captain’s bill of lading. This bill of lading was marked “ Captain’s B L.” The captain demanded this bill of lading of the defendants, and they delivered it to him, after having made upon it the customary indorsements of the arrival
Judgment on the finding.