People's Nat. Bank of Boston v. Mulholland
| Decision Date | 21 June 1916 |
| Citation | 224 Mass. 448,113 N.E. 365 |
| Parties | PEOPLE'S NAT. BANK OF BOSTON v. MULHOLLAND et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Superior Court, Suffolk County; Marcus Morton, Judge.
Action by the People's National Bank of Boston against Eliza B. Mulholland and another. Decree for plaintiff, and defendant Ellen T. Coughlin, administratrix, appeals. Reversed in part and modified in part.
Walter J. Cusick, of Boston, for appellant.
Lee M. Friedman and Swift, Friedman & Atherton, all of Boston, for appellee.
Prior to the summer of 1911, the defendant Mulholland and one Cornelius J. Coughlin were copartners under the name and style of E. F. Mulholland & Co., and were engaged in the business of importing hides which they sold either in the raw state or had them tanned into leather and then sold. In the summer of 1911, the copartnership was dissolved, and thereafter, Coughlin continued the business until his death, September 24, 1911. The defendant Ellen F. Coughlin was duly appointed as his administratrix, and his estate has been represented insolvent.
March 22, 1910, the firm received from one S. G. Kaufman, of Germany, a bill of lading with a draft for the delivery upon payment of 92 casks of hides. Coughlin, on behalf of the firm, arranged with the plaintiff to furnish the money to pay the draft. Before the payment was made, Coughlin executed and delivered to the plaintiff the collateral promissory note of the firm for the amount of the draft. With the delivery of the note he also delivered a trust receipt of the firm, in the form set out in the bill of complaint.
At the time of Coughlin's death, the skins described in the trust receipt had either been sold or tanned into leather. The skins that remained unsold and the money received from those sold were so mixed with other skins and money of the firm as to render them not susceptible of separation and identification. The question is whether this fund (money and leather) should be awarded to the bank under its claim under the trust receipt.
There are no facts found by the master to warrant a finding or inference of fact that the plaintiff purchased the hides of Kaufman on behalf of the firm, that it took title to itself as security for its advancement or that it received the bill of lading and draft as agent for the seller. The case at bar is, therefore, not within or governed by Stollenwerck v. Thacher, 115 Mass. 224;Nat. Bank of Chicago v. Bayley, 115 Mass. 228;Newcomb v. Boston & Lowell R. R., 115 Mass. 230;Moors v. Wyman, 146 Mass. 60, 15 N. E. 104;Moors v. Bird, 190 Mass. 400, 77 N. E. 643;Baker v. Brown, 214 Mass. 196, 100 N. E. 1025.
[2] With the payment of the draft the legal title to the hides passed from the seller to the firm. The trust receipt, before the passing of the title to the firm, was inoperative to vest any legal title in the plaintiff, or after the passing of title to the firm to deprive it of title. It could not operate as a pledge because the plaintiff never had posession of the hides, and because the...
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Mason v. Wylde
...not contended by either party that the so called trust receipts were ‘trust receipts' in the strict sense. See Peoples National Bank v. Mulholland, 224 Mass. 448, 113 N.E. 365; Id., 228 Mass. 152, 117 N.E. 46. The ‘trust receipts', however, were security instruments by which title to the au......
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Mason v. Wylde
...is not contended by either party that the so called trust receipts were "trust receipts" in the strict sense. See Peoples National Bank v. Mulholland, 224 Mass. 448; S. C. 228 Mass. 152 . The "trust however, were security instruments by which title to the automobiles passed to the defendant......
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Nowell v. Equitable Trust Co.
...the banker and importer and of trust receipts has been explained. Moors v. Wyman, 146 Mass. 60, 15 N. E. 104;People's National Bank v. Mulholland, 224 Mass. 448, 451, 113 N. E. 365;Id., 228 Mass. 152, 155, 117 N. E. 46, and cases collected; Brown v. Green & Hickey Leather Co., 244 Mass. 168......
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