McNear v. Bourn

Citations

• 122 Cal. 621
• 55 P. 596
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 644

Syllabus

<p>Forged Warehouse Receipt—Agency—Notice to Purchaser.—The purchaser oí a forged warehouse receipt, which was signed in blank by one who had ceased to be the agent in charge of the warehouse, and which was fraudulently obtained and filled in with a false statement of a large deposit of grain in the warehouse, by the person procuring the blank receipt, who sold the same to the purchaser, through an agent, who had notice that the receipt was signed after the agent signing it had ended his employment in the warehouse, must suffer the loss, and cannot throw it upon the warehouse, under the maxim embodied in section 3543 of the Civil Code.</p> <p>Id.—Support op Finding—Conflicting Evidence.—Where there is some evidence to sustain a finding that the agent of the purchaser had notice of the want of authority to sign the warehouse receipt, the finding will not be disturbed upon appeal, though there is conflicting evidence to the contrary, in view of which the finding might well have been to the contrary.</p> <p>Id.—Evidence—Notice—Cessation of Agent’s Employment—Absence op Wheat.—In an action by the purchaser of the spurious warehouse receipt against the owners of the warehouse, their former agent having testified that prior to the purchase of the receipt, he gave notice to the agent of the plaintiff of the fact and date of his discharge, it was competent for defendants to show by him when his employment ceased, and that, on that date, no such lot of grain as that described in the receipt was in the warehouse, and that he subsequently told plaintiff’s agent that there was something wrong about that receipt. It was also competent to show by him the circumstances under which he signed the receipt im blank, and that the body of it was filled in by another person.</p>