Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank v. Haslett Warehouse Co.

LANGDON, P. J.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment against it in an action brought against the defendants to recover $32,507 damages for failure to deliver 100 cases of egg albumen, stored in the defendant’s warehouse, for which plaintiff had purchased a negotiable warehouse receipt, for value, and without notice of any adverse claims to the goods.

The trial court found that on December 11, 1919, the collector of customs of the port of San Francisco ordered 100 eases of dried egg albumen to be stored as unclaimed goods in Humboldt bonded warehouse, a warehouse owned and operated by defendant as a class 3 warehouse, as classified under and by virtue of the provisions of the customs regulations duly made by the secretary of the treasury for the regulation of United States bonded warehouses, and that on or about the said eleventh day of December, 1919, defendant received said goods in said warehouse; that on or about the twenty-fourth day of December, 1919, the said goods were entered by the said collector of customs in the name of and as the property of one T. N. Morris, and that (defendant thereupon, and by virtue of such entry, entered said goods at said warehouse in the name of and as the property of said T. N. Morris; that on or about the sixth day of January, 1920, H. W. Gutte & Company presented to defendant an order for the delivery of said goods to said H. W. Gutte & Company, Inc., duly executed by said T. N. Morris, and on said date defendant issued a negotiable warehouse receipt for said goods to said H. W. Gutte & Company, Inc., and said receipt provided, and it so appeared upon the face of the receipt, that the said goods were received by defendant in storage in said Humboldt bonded warehouse.

On January 7, 1920, Gutte & Company indorsed and delivered the said negotiable warehouse receipt to Koekos Brothers, who purchased the same in good faith and for value

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without notice of any fact that might cause it to be dishonored. Koekos Brothers, in turn, indorsed and delivered said negotiable warehouse receipt to plaintiff, who purchased it in good faith and for value. On February 17, 1920, plaintiff surrendered said negotiable receipt to defendant in exchange for a non-negotiable warehouse receipt for the same goods, which non-negotiable receipt stated that it was given for goods in storage in Humboldt bonded warehouse. On February 17, 1920, the plaintiff gave to Koekos Brothers an order allowing them to withdraw 50 cases of the 100 cases of egg albumen mentioned in the warehouse receipts.