Corbett v. Underwood

Citations

• 83 Ill. 324

Syllabus

<p>1. Pledge—defined. A pledge is the lien created by the delivery of personal property by the owner to another, upon an express or implied agreement that it shall be retained as a security for an existing or future debt. To create a pledge, the pledgee must have the possession and control of the property.</p> <p>3. Where a commission merchant contracts for the purchase of grain for another to be delivered at a future time, the principal making an advance on ■the purchase, which is in the merchant’s name, and agrees to keep the margin good up to the time of delivery, the relation of pledgor and pledgee will not he created, so as to require a notice of the time and place of a sale on failure to keep up the margins.</p> <p>3. Principal and agent—right of agent to sell grain contracted for, on failure to heep margin good. If a party employs a commission merchant to contract in the board of trade of Chicago for the purchase and future delivery of grain, on a speculation, and makes the necessary advance as a margin, and, by the rules and usages of the board, with which he is conversant, it becomes necessary, owing to a decline in prices, for him to advance a further sum to keep the margin good, which he fails to do when notified and requested, the merchant in whose name the contract is made, and who is liable for the price agreed to be paid, will have the right to make sale of the grain to save himself, and if loss is thereby incurred he will not he liable therefor to his principal.</p> <p>4. Custom and usage—as evidence, to change terms of contract. Where parties have settled the terms and conditions of a contract by agreement, they will be concluded by it, regardless of any usage or custom.</p> <p>5. Same—when admissible in evidence. Proof of usage or custom may be received to interpret the intention of parties, and to ascertain the nature and extent of their contracts, arising, not from express stipulation, hut from mere implications and presumptions, and acts of doub