Commercial Bank Of Jacksonville v. Flowers

• Decision Date: 08 August 1902
• Citation: 116 Ga. 219,42 S.E. 474
• Parties: COMMERCIAL BANK OF JACKSONVILLE, FLA. v. FLOWERS.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

42 S.E. 474

116 Ga. 219

COMMERCIAL BANK OF JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

v.FLOWERS.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Aug. 8, 1902.

PLEDGE—VALIDITY.

1. In order to constitute a valid pledge of property to secure a debt, there must be a delivery, either actual or constructive, of the property to the intended pledgee. Consequently, the delivery, as collateral security to a promissory note, of a paper purporting to be a wharfinger's receipt for property therein described, conveys to the intended pledgee no interest whatever in such property, when the same is not in the possession of the wharfinger or the party who undertakes to pledge it.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from city court of Brunswick; J. D. Sparks, Judge.

Action by A. A. Flowers against Des Rochers & Phinney Co. Judgment for plaintiff on levy of execution. The Commercial Bank of Jacksonville, Fla., filed claim. Judgment for Flowers, and the bank brings error. Affirmed.

R. H. Liggett, A. L. Franklin, and D. W. Krauss, for plaintiff in error.

W. E. Kay, for defendant in error.

FISH, J. In the view which we take of this case, it is controlled by the principle laid down in the above headnote, and it is, therefore, unnecessary to consider any of the questions made except the one therein indicated, which can be reached and determined without passing upon any of the others. Certain described lumber, while in the possession of Hopkins & Co., wharfingers, and lying upon their dock in the city of Brunswick, was levied upon under an attachment for purchase money in favor of Flowers, and against Des Rochers & Phinney Co., and was claimed by the Commercial Bank of Jacksonville, Fla. Upon the trial of the claim case, the claimant relied for title upon a wharfinger's receipt issued by Hopkins & Co. to Des Rochers & Phinney Co., and by the latter attached to and pledged as collateral for a note for $1,000. given by such company to the National Bank of Brunswick, Ga., which bank regularly transferred the note and the accompanying collateral, for value, to the claimant. It clearly appears from the evidence that at the time that this receipt was issued, and at the time that it was transferred to the Brunswick bank, neither Hopkins & Co. nor Des Rochers & Phinney Co. had possession of the lumber in controversy, and that the latter did not then even have any title thereto. This particular lumber then belonged to, and was in the possession of, Flowers, the plaintiff, at his sawmill in Sumner, Worth county, Ga. He had contracted to sell to Des Rochers & Phinney Co. a certain amount of lumber of this description, and several days subsequently to the issuing of the wharfinger's receipt to that company by Hopkins & Co.. and to its transfer to the Brunswick bank, he did ship the lumber by rail to Des Rochers & Phinney Co., at Brunswick, where it was received for that company by Hopkins & Co., the wharfingers, and deposited upon their dock. The sale by Flowers to Des Rochers & Phinney Co....