43 Minn. 33 | Minn. | 1890
Appeal from an order overruling a demurrer to the complaint. From the complaint it appears, in brief, that the firm of Gr. W. Ehle & Co. operated and conducted, for the storage of grain, a grain warehouse at Stewart, in this state. Fifteen different owners of grain, plaintiff being one of them, deposited at different times with said Ehle & Co., in said warehouse, for storage, different quantities of wheat, the aggregate amount so deposited being 2,647 35-60 bushels, and upon each of such deposits each depositor received from Ehle & Co. the usual warehouse or elevator receipt for the amount so deposited, with, however, this clause, (unusual, we think,) that if, for any reason, it should become necessary to remove such grain, Ehle & Co. reserved the right to deliver the grain from any other warehouse operated by them, etc. As the mere desire on the part of Ehle & Co. to sell the grain so deposited could not be regarded as a reason for removal under this clause, and no reason of necessity for its removal appears, we need not further consider that clause. None of the receipts so issued were redeemed. Ehle & Co., without the knowledge or consent of the receipt-holders, sold and shipped to defendants, and they converted to their own use, so much of the wheat so deposited that there was left in the warehouse, to meet the outstanding receipts, amounting to 2,647 35-60, only 1,144 bushels. This latter quantity was then distributed pro rata to the outstanding receipts. All the receipts other than those received by him have been sold to plaintiff, and he brings the action to recover for a conversion of the wheat so sold and shipped to defendants.
It being a general rule of law that a purchaser of personal property gets ordinarily no better title than his vendor has, it will be necessary to consider what was the right or title of Ehle & Co. in or to the wheat; that is, to consider what are the rights, in respect to grain stored in a general grain warehouse, of the depositor and depositee. This must be determined by the statute regulating such warehouses
The statute was passed for the better protection of depositors in such general grain warehouses. The evils to be cured were those which were supposed to follow the prior rule of law, — the rule of the common law. That rule was that where a deposit was made of grain or other like property, with the expectation that it would be commingled in a common mass of similar kind, deposited by different persons, so that its identity would necessarily be lost, and the undertaking of the depositee was not to redeliver the identical property deposited, but to deliver, in lieu thereof, an equal amount of the same kind of property, the title to the property deposited passed to the depositee. The deposit had the effect of a sale. The statute changes this rule, and provides (Gen. St. 1878, c. 124, § 13) that “such delivery shall in all things be deemed and treated as a bailment, and not as a sale.” Of course, it cannot be understood from this that the depositor’s title to the identical grain remains. The legislature must be taken to have had in view the way in which the business of such warehouses is, and of necessity must be, conducted. They are constantly receiving deposits of grain, and issuing receipts for it, and as constantly taking up outstanding receipts, and removing the amounts of grain called for by them, so that perhaps the same identical grain may not remain in the warehouse a week, though the amount in store is not diminished. The declaration that the delivery shall be deemed and treated as a bailment must be taken as meaning that the depos
The grain, of like kind and quality, of different depositors, not being kept separate, but put into a common mass, and each depositor owning the amount called for by his receipt, the different owners owning the entire mass, they own the mass as tenants in common; the interest of each being measured by the amount called for by his receipt. So, if the owner of the warehouse put his own grain into the mass, he becomes a tenant in common of the entire body of the grain with the other owners. Ordinarily, the partition is to be made by the warehouseman, who, when a receipt is presented, and the grain it calls for demanded, and the conditions of the right to a delivery of it. complied with, delivers to the holder, as his share of the entire body of grain under that receipt, the amount that it calls for. If the receipt-holder is put to his action of replevin, the sheriff makes the separation. Gen. St. 1878, c. 124, § 16. But, while the interest of the depositor in the mass is measured by the amount he deposits, and mentioned in his receipt, the interest of the warehouseman, by reason of putting his own grain into the mass, is not necessarily measured by what he puts in; for if, from any cause for which he is responsible, as by his taking grain out from the mass, the whole amount is diminished below what is required to fill the outstanding receipts, what he puts in is appropriated at once, so far as may be necessary, to the receipts, and becomes at once the property of the holders. Thus, if there is a shortage thus arising of 200 bushels, and he puts in 400 bushels of his own, his interest in the mass after that is equal to 200 bushels, just the excess above what is required to fill the receipts. That amount, and no more, he has a right to take out and
If the warehouseman be also a dealer in grain, his right to dispose of, as his own, the grain in the warehouse, is limited to that which belongs to him, which he has purchased and put in, or, when deposited by others, which he has purchased from them, and to the excess above what is required to meet his outstanding receipts. The statute clearly enacts that he shall not sell or otherwise dispose of grain on deposit. Its purpose is to provide that the grain shall remain in the warehouse where deposited, to meet the call of the owner. Ehle & Co. were not the owners of, they had no title to, the grain which they sold or assumed to sell to the defendants. It belonged to the holders of the receipts.
Much argument has been expended to show the inconvenience to commerce in grain if in such eases the owner of the grain may, notwithstanding a wrongful sale by the warehouseman, follow the grain into the hands of the purchaser. As touching the matter of convenience, the argument has much force. It might tend greatly to facilitate traffic in grain if we had, in respect to it, such a rule as in England pertains to property sold in markets overt. But there is no such rule in this country. The general rule is that an owner of personal property cannot be deprived of his right to it through the un
Order affirmed.
