Poole v. H. & T. C. R'y Co.

Citations

• 58 Tex. 134
• 1882 Tex. LEXIS 222

Syllabus

<p>1. Liability of attorney—Fraud.— A wholesale merchant at Galveston, learning of the insolvency of a firm to whom he had shipped goods by rail, notified the railroad agent at their point of destination of his purpose to stop the shipment in transitu, who replied that the shipment would be protected. Afterwards, and before the arrival of the goods, the purchasers assigned the bill of lading without consideration to their attorney, and gave him a written order on the railway agent at an intermediate station for the goods. The attorney then intercepted the shipment before the goods reached their destination at the way station, remarked them in the name of a fictitious firm, effaced from the cases the name of the original purchaser, and reshipped the goods thus marked to their original destination, where they were delivered to the original purchaser. Tn a suit by the wholesale merchant against the railroad company and the attorney, held,</p> <p>(1) A charge to the effect that to make the attorney liable it must be shown that he was acting, not as agent for the insolvent customer to whom the goods were shipped, but for himself, was error.</p> <p>(2) The attorney having assumed the apparent ownership of the goods, for the purpose and with the intention of cofnmitting a fraud upon'the creditor, could not be heard to deny his liability to him Lr the loss thereby sustained.</p> <p>(3) Such acts are foreign to the duties of an attorney.</p> <p>(4) The statute recognizes no such officer as “ general freight agent,” and service of citation on the station agent having control of freights of the railway company at the point of destination of the goods, was service on the company. Notice to such an agent of stoppage in transitu was notice to the company.</p> <p>(5) Under all the facts of the case, the question of good faith on the part of the agents of the company should have been submitted to the jury with appropriate instructions.</p>