Swim v. Wilson

De Haven, J. The plaintiff was the owner of one hundred shares of stock of a mining corporation, issued to one H. B. Parsons, trustee, and properly indorsed by him. Tl>is stock was stolen from plaintiff by an employee in his office, and delivered for sale to the defendant, who was engaged in the business of buying and selling stocks on commission. At the time of placing [128]the stock in defendant’s possession, the thief represented himself as its owner, and the defendant, relying upon this representation, in good faith, and without any notice that the stock was stolen, sold the same in the usual course of business, and subsequently, still without any notice that the person for whom he had acted in making the sale was not the true owner, paid over to him the net proceeds of such sale. Thereafter the plaintiff brought this action to recover the value of said stock, alleging that the defendant had converted the same to his own use, and the facts as above stated appearing, the court in which the action was tried gave judgment against defendant for such value, and from this judgment, and an order refusing him a new trial, the defendant appeals.

It is clear that the defendant’s principal did not, by stealing plaintiff’s property, acquire any legal right to sell it, and it is equally clear that the defendant, acting for him, and as his agent, did not have any greater right, and his act was therefore wholly unauthorized, and in law was a conversion of plaintiff’s'property.

“ It is no defense to an action of trover that the defendant acted as the agent of another. If the principal is a wrong-doer, the agent is a wrong-doer also. A person is guilty of a conversion who sells the property of another without authority from the owner, notwithstanding he acts under the authority' of one claiming to be the owner, and is ignorant of such person’s want oftitle.” (Kimball v. Billings, 55 Me. 147; 92 Am. Dec. 581; Coles v. Clark, 3 Cush. 399; Koch v. Branch, 44 Mo. 542; 100 Am. Dec. 324.)

In Stephens v. Elwell, 4 Maule & S. 259, this principle was applied where an innocent clerk received goods from an agent of his employer, and forwarded them to such employer abroad, and in rendering his decision on the case presented, Lord Bllenborough uses this language: “ The only question is, whether this is a conversion in the clerk, which undoubtedly was so in the master. The [129]