Parker v. Home Fire & Marine Insurance

THE COURT. The action was brought by plaintiff as the assignee for collection of Herbert Inc. to recover for the loss by fire of a lot of prunes claimed to have been owned' by the latter and to have been covered by a policy of fire insurance issued to it by the defendant.

The ease was tried before the court, which rendered judgment in defendant’s favor. The plaintiff appeals.

There is no dispute as to the facts, and the only question of law involved is as to whether Herbert Inc. had acquired title to the goods at the time they were destroyed and were consequently covered by the policy.'

The sale and purchase of the prunes was one of a number governed by the terms of a general contract dated June 20, 1932, and entered into by United Prune Growers, a cooperative marketing association (designated therein as “United”) on the one part, and a number of packers of dried fruit, of which Herbert Inc. was one, on the other. The particular lot of prunes here involved, although the property of United, were stored at the packing plant of Herbert Inc., to which they had been delivered by the growers for the account of said marketing association, and they had been pledged by the latter to the Bank of America and the Federal Farm Board, which had jointly granted a loan to United, and Herbert Inc. had delivered to the Federal Reserve Bank as the representative of the lenders a writing, certifying that it held the prunes as their pledge-holder.

[717]The sale had been effected by the acceptance on October 31, 1932, by Herbert Inc. of an offer by United of a certain gross tonnage, including a quantity of 154,279 pounds, which is the subject of the present dispute. Invoices were prepared and rendered in due course, but at the time of the destruction of the prunes payment therefor had not yet been made.

On January 9, 1933, United delivered to said Federal Reserve Bank a certified check sufficient in amount to repay its loan, and at .this time the bank surrendered to it certain pledge-holders’ certificates, including that of Herbert Inc. It was too late in the day to pass the check through the clearing house, but this was done on the following day, January 10th, and the amount thereof credited to the accounts of the Federal Farm Board and Bank of America in the respective sums due them as participants in the loan. The fire occurred at about 6 o’clock in the morning of said January 10th, i. e., after the surrender of the pledge-holders’ certificates to the United but before the accounts of the lenders had been credited with the proceeds of the check.