Geisman, Musliner & Brightman, Inc. v. Royal Bank of Canada

Headnote

Conversion — pledge — action to recover for the alleged conversion of merchandise — defense that defendant was entitled to goods under agreement pledging them as collateral for loans.

Geisman, Musliner & Brightman, Inc., v. Royal Bank of Canada> 213 App. Div. 818 , affirmed.

Appeal, by permission, from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered April 2, 1925, unanimously affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict directed by the court. The action was to recover for the alleged conversion by defendant, appellant, of four cases of leather which had been delivered by plaintiff at a warehouse for the account of a purchaser and a negotiable warehouse receipt issued to said purchaser to whom also plaintiff delivered an invoice in triplicate. The same warehouse thereafter received for the account of the same purchaser eight other cases and issued to him another receipt. This last receipt he delivered to defendant bank as collateral for a loan and he attached thereto one of the triplicate invoices he had received from plaintiff and an invoice for four cases received from another party. Thereafter, the purchaser not having paid plaintiff for its goods, he agreed to return them and for that purpose delivered the warehouse receipt therefor to plaintiff, who after inspecting the merchandise and finding it intact

left it at the warehouse for storage, surrendering the negotiable receipt and receiving therefor a non-negotiable receipt and paying storage charges in advance. The defendant thereafter took possession of the four cases and removed them to another warehouse alleging that it was entitled to possession of the goods as pledgee.