First Nat. Bank v. Young

• Decision Date: 08 December 1898
• Citation: 55 P. 215,20 Wash. 337
• Parties: FIRST NAT. BANK OF PULLMAN v. YOUNG et al.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

55 P. 215

20 Wash. 337

FIRST NAT. BANK OF PULLMAN v. YOUNG et al.

Supreme Court of Washington

December 8, 1898

Appeal from superior court, Whitman county; William McDonald, Judge.

Action by the First National Bank of Pullman against C. W. Young and another, partners, as Young & Monlux. From an order sustaining a demurrer to the complaint, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Fullerton & Ettinger and Chadwick & Bryant, for appellant.

J. W. Mathews and Hanna & Hanna, for respondents.

DUNBAR, J.

The complaint alleged substantially the following pertinent facts: That between the 15th day of September, 1895, and the 1st day of January, 1896, the defendants were co-partners doing business under the firm name and style of Young &amp Monlux, and were engaged in conducting and operating a grain warehouse for handling and storing grain, at Pullman, in Whitman county, Washington; that between said dates the defendant Ezra Monlux delivered at the said warehouse 41,650 pounds of No. 1 wheat, which said wheat was received for storing in said warehouse by said defendants; that the defendants gave to said Ezra Monlux, as evidence of the receipt of said wheat, certain memoranda. We insert one which is substantially a copy of all.

'No. 123. Pullman, Sep. 28, 1895.

'Received for account of owner, as appears on stub.

'E. Monlux 6,395

'No. Dry, 50 sacks.

'Notice: Do not buy this slip. It must be returned for storage ticket.

'C. W. Young.'

No other or different receipt was given therefor. Some of these receipts were signed by one C. E. Durham, but it is alleged that Durham was authorized by the defendants to receive wheat at the warehouse, and acknowledge the same by written memoranda. C. W. Young, who signed a number of the memoranda, is one of the defendants in the action. It is further alleged that after said wheat was received by defendants, and stored in the warehouse, and on the 27th day of January, 1896, said defendant Monlux, for a valuable consideration, sold, assigned, and transferred said wheat and the whole thereof, to one W. M. Chambers and one H. W Price, co-partners as Chambers, Price & Co., and as evidence thereof indorsed to said Chambers, Price & Co. the written memoranda thereof hereinbefore mentioned; that on the 29th day of September, 1896, the said Chambers, Price & Co., for a valuable consideration, sold, assigned, and transferred said wheat, and the whole thereof, to the plaintiff, and, as evidence thereof, delivered to the plaintiff the written memoranda above mentioned, and that the plaintiff is now, and ever since said time has been, the lawful owner of said wheat; alleges the presentation of the memoranda, the demand upon the defendants for the issuance of a regular warehouse receipt, and, upon the same being refused, a demand for the wheat, or value thereof, and an offer to pay all storage then accrued on said wheat and all warehouse or other legal charges; failure of the defendants to deliver said wheat, or any part thereof, or, in lieu thereof, to pay the value of said wheat, or any part thereof, and a wrongful and unlawful conversion of said wheat to defendants' own use; alleges the market value of the wheat and damages for detention to the amount of the value; and demands judgment for the same. To...