Seaboard Air Line Ry. Co. v. Gleason

• Decision Date: 28 October 1927
• Docket Number: No. 5103.,5103.
• Parties: SEABOARD AIR LINE RY. CO. v. GLEASON.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

21 F.2d 883 (1927)

SEABOARD AIR LINE RY. CO. v. GLEASON.^*

No. 5103.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

October 28, 1927.

E. Ormonde Hunter and J. Randolph Anderson, both of Savannah, Ga. (Anderson, Cann & Cann, J. Randolph Anderson, Connerat & Hunter, and E. Ormonde Hunter, all of Savannah, Ga., on the brief), for plaintiff in error.

Edward Brennan, of Savannah, Ga., for defendant in error.

Before WALKER, BRYAN, and FOSTER, Circuit Judges.

WALKER, Circuit Judge.

This was an action by the defendant in error, herein called the cotton company, against the plaintiff in error, Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, herein called the railway company, and resulted in a judgment for the former, based on a verdict in its favor on the second and third counts of its petition. The evidence disclosed the following facts:

One McDonnell, an employee of the railway company in its office at Savannah, Ga., conceived a plan of swindling the cotton company to his own enrichment by a forged bill of lading transaction. He procured a leave of absence from his employer for the 18th of March for the alleged purpose of taking a certified public accountant's examination in Atlanta. On March 18th McDonnell went to Charleston, S. C., where he presented himself under the name of J. A. Tillman at the Bank of Charleston and drew on the cotton company in the name of said Tillman for $10,000, with a bill of lading attached purporting to cover 110 bales of cotton marked J. A. T., received March 18, 1925, at Charleston, to be transported by the railway company to Savannah, order said Tillman, notify the cotton company. The bill of lading thus uttered by McDonnell, the indorsement on same, and the draft drawn by him in the name of said Tillman were all forged by the said McDonnell. The name of J. A. Tillman, used by him, was a fictitious name. As a matter of fact there was no such shipment originating at Charleston. No such 110 bales, or any part of same, ever existed or was ever delivered to the railway company by said Tillman or said McDonnell, or by any one, for transportation to Savannah to the order of said Tillman or to notify the cotton company.

McDonnell then returned to Savannah and was back at his desk on the 19th. The forged draft and bill of lading were forwarded for collection from Charleston through the Citizens' & Southern Bank of Savannah, with a letter to the effect that the said Tillman came to the Bank of Charleston unidentified. This letter, with the draft and bill of lading attached, the Citizens' & Southern Bank presented to the cotton company. In furtherance of his fraudulent scheme, upon being telephoned by the cotton company at his employer's office, McDonnell then stated to it that the cars designated in the forged bills of lading had arrived at the terminals in Savannah, although he knew this to be false. Thereupon the cotton company paid the draft. McDonnell's duties as an employee of the railway company in its Savannah office included giving notice to the trade of the arrival of cotton.

After the draft was paid in Savannah, and the funds transmitted to the Bank of Charleston in Charleston by mail, arriving at the opening of business on the morning of March 20, 1925, said McDonnell, after having procured another leave of absence from the business of the railway company, allegedly in connection with his public accountant's examination, presented himself at the said Bank of Charleston during the morning of that day, still masquerading under the name of Tillman, and collected the $10,000, with which he decamped. The officials of the Bank of Charleston who handled this transaction had received no information of any kind relative to the bill of lading from the railway company, its agents or employees in Charleston or elsewhere, but relied solely upon the representations of McDonnell, masquerading as Tillman, in receiving the same, forwarding it for...