Commonwealth v. Fleming

Citations

• 130 Pa. 138
• 18 A. 622
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1169

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. The meaning of the term C. O. D., placed upon an express package, is that the carrier is directed to collect the price of the goods at the time of delivering them to the consignee, and to withhold such delivery until payment thereof is made; and is authorized on receipt of such payment to discharge the purchaser of the goods from liability for their price.</p> <p>2. When, in pursuance of an order for goods, directed by the purchaser ^ to be shipped to him C. O. D., the vendor has delivered them to a common carrier, with instructions to collect their price from the consignee before delivering them to him, the transaction as a sale is complete, so far as the vendor is concerned.</p> <p>8. In such case, while the title to the goods does not pass to the purchaser if they be not delivered to him by the carrier, that circumstance does not affect the character of the transaction as a completed contract of sale; the seller’s right to recover the price, if the purchaser refuse to take the goods, is as complete as if he had taken them without payment.</p> <p>4. An order from a seller to a carrier to collect on delivery is a mere provision for retention of the seller’s lien; if accepted it creates a contract between the seller and the carrier, on breach of which by the latter, the seller may recover the price from him; but it does not make payment by the vendee a condition precedent to delivery, so that the seller may reclaim goods delivered by the carrier without payment.</p> <p>5. If a liquor dealer in Allegheny county receive an order for liquor, to be shipped to the purchaser in Mercer county, C. O. D., and in pursuS' anee of the order the liquor be delivered to a common earner in Allegheny county, for transportation to the vendee, at the latter’s expense, O. O. D., the delivery to the carrier is a delivery to the purchaser in such a sense as to complete the sale in Allegheny county.</p> <p>6. In such case, the vendor cannot be convicted of s