Opinion ID: 412049
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Corrigan's Refusal to Deliver

Text: 16 Guzman argues as its second basis for appeal that it was entitled to recover damages against Corrigan for not delivering its coffee to Balzac. Guzman is correct when it asserts that under Article 7.403 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code Corrigan had an obligation to deliver Guzman's goods to a person entitled under the document (warehouse receipt) .... 8 Yet Guzman's position is only partially correct. Under that same section, a warehouseman is excused from his obligation to deliver if he has a personal defense against the claimant, Sec. 7.403(6), or any other lawful excuse, Sec. 7.403(7). Thus the question here is not whether Corrigan had an obligation to deliver the coffee. It clearly did. The question here is whether Corrigan was lawfully excused from that obligation by the competing claims for Guzman's property. We hold that Corrigan did establish such a lawful excuse. 17 Corrigan excuses its failure to deliver Guzman's coffee to Balzac on the basis of its filing of an interpleader action. 9 Interpleader is a device which allows a party in possession of money or property belonging to another to join two or more parties asserting mutually exclusive claims to the property or fund in a single suit, thereby freeing the stakeholder from multiple liability or multiple lawsuits. An interpleader action may be instituted by a plaintiff when two or more persons have claims such that the plaintiff may be exposed to double or multiple liability. At this initial stage, the merits of these potential claims are irrelevant; the threat of multiple vexation by future litigation provides sufficient basis for interpleader under F.R.Civ.P. 22. See 3 A. Lucas and J. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice Sec. 2202(1) (1974). 18 In this action, Corrigan was faced with the competing claims of Cargill and Balzac. E.H. Corrigan testified that Balzac threatened suit if delivery was not made. He also testified that representatives of Mitsui had claimed that the coffee belonged to it. On that basis, we hold that Corrigan's filing of an interpleader action was proper and that this filing constituted a lawful excuse for its obligation to deliver Guzman's goods. Guzman is therefore not entitled to recover damages against Corrigan for its failure to deliver coffee to Balzac.