261 Mass. 153 | Mass. | 1927
It was undisputed that the plaintiffs employed the defendant as a salesman on commission, to whom they shipped merchandise for sale which he received and kept in his place of business, and that the plaintiffs sometime in January, 1924, directed the defendant to return the merchandise to them by express. In accordance with the order to reship, the defendant, whose place of business was in.
The title was in the plaintiffs, who had the right to demand a return of the merchandise in accordance with their directions, and, if such directions were not complied with, and the merchandise was thereby lost, the defendant would be liable for conversion. Murray v. Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. 210 Mass. 188,195. It is contended, however, by the defendant, that he was a gratuitous bailee, and that, in the absence of bad faith or of gross negligence, of which there is no evidence, the action cannot be maintained. The plaintiffs directed that the merchandise should be returned "by express,” and no contention is made by them that delivery for transportation to an employee of the American Railway Express Company would not have been a sufficient compli
The defendant’s requests, which in variant form asked for rulings that there was no proof of conversion, that there had been a delivery to the express company, and that the defendant cannot be held liable if he used ordinary care, having been denied rightly, the order of the Appellate Division dismissing the report, is
Affirmed.