Baker v. Malone

• Decision Date: 12 June 1900
• Citation: 126 Ala. 510,28 So. 631
• Parties: BAKER v. MALONE ET AL.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

28 So. 631

126 Ala. 510

BAKER v. MALONE ET AL.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 12, 1900

Appeal from circuit court, Henry county; J. C. Richardson, Judge.

Action by Joe Baker, Jr., against Malone & Sons for damages alleged to have been occasioned by defendants' failure as warehousemen to deliver certain property intrusted to them. From a judgment for defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

This action was brought by the appellant against the appellees. The complaint, as amended, was as follows: "The plaintiff claims of the defendants the sum of seventeen hundred and fifty dollars damages for that defendants were during the latter part of the year 1897 and first part of the year 1898, engaged in the business of storage, compressing cotton, and keeping the same for shipment or forwarding, and issued their receipts for cotton so coming into their possession, and the delivery thereof to the compress; that during said season of 1897-98 the defendants received at the compress of Mr. W. P. Campbell sixty-six bales of cotton giving their receipts for the same; that said receipts for said sixty-six bales of cotton were delivered by the said W P. Campbell to the cashier of the Bank of Dothan, as security for advances made by said Bank of Dothan to said Campbell and also to secure a debt due the plaintiff in this action by said Campbell; and that in February, 1898, the plaintiff purchased said sixty-six bales of said Campbell, paying the Bank of Dothan the debt of Campbell to them, applying the balance in settlement and cancellation of the said Campbell's debt to plaintiff, and thereupon received control and possession of the receipts for said sixty-six bales of cotton, and on demand of said cotton of the defendants they failed and refused to deliver the same to him, to his damages as aforesaid." The defendants demurred to the complaint upon the following grounds: (1) Said complaint fails to allege that defendants made a sale of the cotton intrusted to them. (2) Said complaint fails to allege that defendants incumbered or transferred said cotton with the assent in writing of the person to whom they gave the receipt, to wit, W. P. Campbell, or the legal holder of such receipts. (3) Said complaint fails to allege that the receipts given by the defendants to said Campbell were indorsed by said Campbell to plaintiff. (4) Said complaint fails to allege facts showing that plaintiff was the legal holder of the receipts mentioned therein at the time he made demand on defendants for said cotton. These demurrers were sustained, to which ruling the...