Vance Lumber Co. v. United States Trust Co.

Citations

• 93 Wash. 563
• 161 P. 341
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1223

Syllabus

<p>Principal and Agent — Relation—Bank as Collecting Agent— Evidence — -Sueetciency. A bank collecting and holding on deposit for a logger the proceeds of the sales of certain rafts of logs, is not shown to be an agent to collect or disburse all or any part of the proceeds for the benefit of the owner, under a stumpage contract whereby the logger agreed to pay $2.85 per thousand for logs cut as soon as they were sold; where it appears that the logger made payment, either through the bank or directly, for the first rafts sold, that the bank was helping to finance the logging operations, advancing money to the logger, who at times overdrew the account, and that the bank, in making collections from the purchasing mills, was acting under the directions of the logger and making only such disbursements as directed by him; it further appearing that the logging operations took up the whole of the proceeds, leaving insufficient to pay the stumpage under the contract.</p> <p>Trusts — Implied Trusts — Existence—Deposit in Bank — Knowledge op Debt. A bank, collecting the proceeds of logs sold by a logger, under his direction, would not be a trustee to the extent of the stumpage due, by reason of knowledge that the stumpage was to be paid upon the sale of the logs, where the stumpage contract did not create any lien on the logs or any right to the first proceeds, but only the relation of debtor and creditor.</p>