107 Mo. App. 178 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1904
(after stating the facts). — The facts of the case are related without any material discrepancy by the different witnesses, and the question is as to the ownership of the corn under the law when it was sold and the proceeds appropriated by the respondents. If the judgment in their favor was based on the belief that the appellant did not discount the draft of the
It is insisted that a place of delivery was designated (the L. & N. tracks) and, therefore, no delivery to the-grain company occurred because the corn never reached those tracks. The evidence refutes this notion; for it discloses that though' the corn was to be sent to the Louisville & Nashville Railway in East St. Louis, as the-respondents’ order to the agent of the “K” Line said,, there is nothing to show it was to be delivered to the Woodson-Young Grain Company, or to the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company for the grain company at those tracks. It was to be sent there because the grain, company intended to ship it to Nashville over that line;, but neither those tracks nor any other spot was desig
It is to be borne in mind that the respondents sold
It is not necessary for us to determine whether or not the title to the corn had so far passed from the respondents that they could not have reclaimed it as against the Woodson-Young Crain Company or attaching creditors. What we decide is that the title had vested in the latter company so as to enable it to transfer the property to an innocent purchaser, and that a transfer to such a purchaser took place when appellant discounted the draft on J. H. Wilkes and Company in reliance on the bill of lading.
The same result we have reached by attending to-the question of the ownership of the corn when the bill of lading was assigned, might likewise be reached on the ground that the respondents were estopped to claim-the corn against the appellant by having made it possible for the Woodson-Young Crain Company to deal with it as an apparent owner. Depew v. Robards, 17 Mo. 580; Johnson-Brinkman Co. v. Bank, supra; Young v. Bradley, 68 Ill. 553.
Certain decisions are cited by respondents’ counsel in support of their position. One of these is the Stanard case, which we hold is favorable to the claim of the-bank. In that case Stanard prevailed against the holder of a bill of lading which had been negotiated by a vendee to whom Stanard had sold the commodity on
The point decided in many cases and the principles declared in all of them are consistent with appellant’s ownership of the corn as assignee of the hill of lading.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.