Montesano v. Liberty Warehouse Co.

• Decision Date: 16 September 1938
• Docket Number: No. 36.,36.
• Citation: 121 N.J.L. 124,1 A.2d 462
• Parties: MONTESANO v. LIBERTY WAREHOUSE CO. et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

1 A.2d 462

121 N.J.L. 124

MONTESANO

v. LIBERTY WAREHOUSE CO. et al.

No. 36.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Sept. 16, 1938.

Syllabus by the Court.

The maintenance by a newspaper of a branch office in a municipality other than that where the newspaper is printed and has its main publication, the branch office being for convenience in making local distribution of copies of the newspaper sent to it for that purpose, is not, under the facts of the case, a publishing in the first mentioned municipality within the meaning of sec. 33, para, (d) of the Uniform Warehouse Receipts Law, 4 c.s. p. 5777 at page 5782, R.s.1937, 57:1—36(d).

Appeal from Supreme Court.

Action by John Montesano against the Liberty Warehouse Company, and the Liberty Moving & Storage Company, jointly, severally and in the alternative. From a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the defendants appeal.

Judgment affirmed.

Louis Stein and Stein & Mandel, all of Union City, for appellants.

Lester J. Kramer, of Hoboken, for respondent.

CASE, Justice.

The two defendants have such relations that they may be considered for the purpose of this decision as one.

The question is whether the Jersey Observer, a newspaper, was, within the meaning of sec. 33, para, (d) of the Uniform Warehouse Receipts Law, 4 C.S. p. 5777 at page 5782 (now to be found in the 1937 Rev. 57:l—36(d), published in the City of Union City, County of Hudson. The question arises upon the direction of verdict granted by the trial court against the defendants, leaving to the jury only the question of the amount of damages.

Plaintiff stored with the defendant, a warehouse company, certain goods and chattels. Upon default arising in the payment of the storage charges, defendant sold the goods. The statutory provision follows: "* * * an advertisement of the sale * * * shall be published once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in the place where such sale is to be held. The sale shall not be held less than fifteen days from the time of the first publication. If there is no newspaper published in such place, the advertisement shall be posted at least ten days before such sale in not less than six conspicuous places therein * * *."

An advertisement was inserted in the Jersey Observer and was concededly a compliance with the statute if that paper was published in the City of Union City where the sale was held; otherwise the advertisement did not conform to the statute and the directed verdict was properly granted. Admittedly there was a newspaper, the Hudson Dispatch,...