Seward & Co. v. Miller

Citations

• 106 Va. 309
• 55 S.E. 681
• 1906 Va. LEXIS 135

Syllabus

<p>1. Cabbiebs—Bill of Lading—Written Order Changing Consignee.—If a bill of lading expressly authorizes the carrier to deliver the goods upon the written order of the consignee without the bill of lading, such order, when given, has the same effect as the transfer of the bill of lading.</p> <p>2. Cabbiebs—Bill of Lading—Assignment as Security—Title of Goods.— A bill of lading confers upon the person to whom it is transferred the title to the goods; and this, although the transaction is not intended to give the permanent ownership, but to furnish security-for advances of money, or discount of commercial paper made upon the faith of it. 3. Registby—Assignee of Bill of Lading.—A bank which discounts a draft with a bill of lading attached, if not the absolute owner of the goods, stands in the position of a mortgagee in possession, and is not required, in order to protect its lien, to have the papers recorded under section 2465 of the Code. 4. Cabbiebs—Bill of Lading—Assignment—Attachment—Subsequent Payment of Draft. Attached to Bill of Lading.—A consignee assigned a bill of lading to a purchaser, attached it to a draft on him for the price agreed, and had the draft discounted at bank. The purchaser, under a right reserved in the contract, refused to accept the goods after inspection. The agent of the consignee then sold to X, who agreed to pay the draft. The next day, and before the draft was paid, the goods were attached for a debt due by the consignee. Subsequently X paid the draft.</p> <p>Held: The goods were not the property of the consignee at the time the attachment was levied. They belonged either to the bank or to X. If payments of the draft was an essential prerequisite to invest X with title, then they were the property of the bank; and' if the agent of the consignee had no right to make sale to X, yet when the bank accepted payment of the draft from X, all its rights passed to him, and the attaching creditor had no greater right against him than it had again