Case ID: va_14/html/0939-03.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "*By the Chancellor.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Skinner and Co. v. Dodge and Cobb, Prosser and Moncure, and William Marshall et al.
    Spring Vacation,
    1809.
    Consignee — Right to Pawn Goods.  A consignee of goods may dispose of them in the way of trade; but lie cannot pawn them for his own benefit, so as to devest the property of the consignor. In this case, the facts being clear, the consignors (the plaintiffs) are not to be turned round to a Court of Xjaw; but a decree may be entered in their favour at once, against the pawnees.
    The plaintiffs consigned a parcel of goods to the defendants Dodge and Cobb, to be sold upon commission ; they pawned a part to the defendants Prosser and Moncure, vendue masters; and, failing, conveyed all their own goods and effects to the other defendants Marshall and Kimball, in trust, for their creditors; and delivered the remaining goods of the plaintiffs to the trustees, and they were sold as well as the goods pawned. The bill was therefore filed to discover the goods pawned, as well as those sold by the trustees, or the value thereof. The answer made a full disclosure of all the circumstances; but the vendue masters contended that they should be considered as purchasers, as they .lent money upon the goods pawned.
    
      
       The principal case is cited in note to McConnico v. Curzen, 2 Call 358.
    
   *By the Chancellor.

A consignee of goods hath no right to pawn them as a security for his own debt, and if he does, the pawnee derives no right thereto; for no man can transfer a right which he hath not, to another: and besides, it is a violation of that confidence reposed in the consignee, and it is of the first importance to that intercourse which should be kept up among men, that such confidence should not be abused. As to the goods sold by the trustees, there is as little doubt about them ; for they were not included in the conveyance; and if they had Been, it would not have altered the case, as it would also have been a violation of the confidence reposed in the consignee, and he could not by any act of his devest or change the absolute rights of the consignor, but by making such a disposition of the goods as he was legally authorized to make; and unless the facts were doubtful, the Court should not direct an issue, or turn the plaintiffs round to an action at law, but will, as the facts disclosed are clear, afford them the relief sought by their bill. And a decree was entered accordingly. The vendue masters appealed, but were advised against the prosecution of it, and the appeal was not carried up.