87 Wash. 142 | Wash. | 1915
The plaintiff seeks recovery of the invoice price of shipments of four car loads of lumber, made by the Clyde Lumber Company to the defendant, resting its right of recovery upon assignments to it by the Clyde Lumber Company of the invoices and the bills of lading issued by the carrier. Trial before the superior court without a jury resulted in findings and judgment in favor of the plaintiff, from which the defendant has appealed.
Respondent is a banking corporation with its place of business at Buckley, in King county. The appellant and the Clyde Lumber Company are corporations dealing in lumber, with places of business in King county. On the 25th, 27th, 28th and 29th days of December, 1912, respectively, the Clyde Lumber Company delivered to the Northern Pacific
In First Nat. Bank of Pullman v. Northern Pac. R. Co., 28 Wash. 439, 68 Pac. 965, it was held that the railway company’s delivery of goods to a consignee designated in a bill of lading will not exonerate it from liability unless such delivery be made upon surrender of the bill of lading. The bill of lading there involved was not materially different from the one before us, and the railway company, having delivered the goods without procuring surrender of the bill of lading, was held liable in damages to the holder of the bill of lading as for wrongful delivery, notwithstanding it delivered, the goods to the person named therein as consignee. Our later decision in Coovert v. Spokane, Portland & Seattle R. Co., 80 Wash. 87, 141 Pac. 324, is in harmony with that holding. The logic of these decisions is that the holder of such a bill of lading becomes entitled to the goods, as against a consignee who is a purchaser from the consignor, which right of possession on the part of the holder of the bill of lading
Counsel cite, and place some reliance upon, our decision in Bonds-Foster Lum. Co. v. Northern Pac. R. Co., 53 Wash. 302, 101 Pac. 877. That case, however, involved a bill of lading which was clearly nonnegotiable by reason of the fact that it had plainly indorsed thereon the words “not negotiable nor assignable.” Plainly, such an instrument is neither “a symbol of property” nor “a document of title,” as negotiable bills of lading are sometimes termed. Security State Bank v. O’Connell Lumber Co., supra.
We conclude that the judgment must be affirmed. It is so ordered.
Morris, C. J., Mount, Holcomb, and Chadwick, JJ., concur.