N.J. Title Guarantee & Trust Co. v. Rector
| Decision Date | 28 February 1910 |
| Parties | NEW JERSEY TITLE GUARANTEE & TRUST CO. v. RECTOR et al. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Appeal from Court of Chancery.
Bill by the New Jersey Title Guarantee & Trust Company against Joseph M. Rector and others. A demurrer to the bill was sustained (72 Atl. 908), and complainant appeals. Reversed.
Collins & Corbin, for appellant.
Marshall Van Winkle, for respondents.
The bill of complaint in this cause sets out that the complainant was engaged in the business of warehousing valuable goods for hire, and that Joseph M. Rector deposited with it a box, for which a receipt was given to the depositor; that subsequently Emily M. Rector, claiming to be the owner, notified the complainant not to deliver the box or its contents to Joseph M. Rector, as it belonged to her, and demanded delivery; that the depositor also demanded delivery to him; and that each claimant threatened to bring a suit against complainant to recover the contents of the box. The prayer is that the claimants be required to interplead concerning the ownership of the property. A general demurrer for want of equity was interposed by Joseph M. Rector, which the Vice Chancellor sustained, and to review that conclusion this appeal was taken.
The complainant rests its right to relief upon a statute of this state, entitled "An act concerning warehouse receipts and to make uniform the law relating thereto" (P. L. 1907, p. 341), section 17 of which provides that, if more than one person claim the title or possession of the goods deposited with a warehouseman, he may, either as a defense against nondelivery, or in an original suit, require all known claimants to interplead. Section 18 enacts that if some one other than the depositor, or person claiming under him, has a claim to the title or possession of the goods, and the warehouseman had information thereof, he shall be excused from liability for refusing to deliver the goods, either to the depositor, or to the adverse claimant, until he has had a reasonable time to ascertain the validity of the adverse claim, or to bring legal proceedings to compel all claimants to interplead. Therefore, if complainant received the goods from the depositor, as a warehouseman, in compliance with the terms of the act above mentioned, it is entitled, under section 17, to "require all known claimants to interplead," and this the Vice Chancellor held, but he sustained the demurrer upon the ground that the receipt issued by complainant to the depositor did not comply with section 2 of the act. So much of the receipt executed by the complainant and delivered to Joseph M. Rector, when the goods were deposited as is pertinent to the issue raised, reads as follows:
The determination of the Vice Chancellor, as expressed in his opinion, was "that, until a bailee of goods has issued a warehouse receipt in conformity to the requirements of the second section of the act, he has not brought himself within the privilege which the Legislature has intended to confer by sections 17 and 18." The specific requirements which the Vice Chancellor finds to be absent are: "A statement whether the goods received will be delivered to the bearer or to a specified person or his order," and also "the rate of storage charges."
We think that the clause in the receipt which reads "upon redelivery of the abovementioned package to the...
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...Special attention is directed to the construction of sections, identical in terms, appearing in the Uniform Warehouse Receipt Act of New Jersey. Jersey Title, etc., Co. v. Rector, 72 A. 968; New Jersey Title, etc., Co. v. Rector, 75 A. 931. Under section 19, except as is provided in section......
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Sampsell v. Lawrence Warehouse Co., 11844.
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In re Hedgeside Distillery Corp.
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