Court Opinion

ID: 8639758
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-24 19:51:14.943592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:56:03.745896
License: Public Domain

STORY, Circuit Justice
(after summing up the facts). The first question is, whether there has been a conversion in this case. This is a question of fact to be judged of by the jury under all the circumstances. A demand and refusal to deliver is not-of itself a conversion; but it is evidence from which a jury may presume a conversion. Where a demand is made by an agent, and the party refuses to deliver to the agent, either because he has no authority, or declines to produce it, such a refusal under such circumstances, is not even evidence of a conversion, for every person in possession of property, has a right to retain it, until it is demanded by some person having, and if required, producing competent authority to demand it. I agree, therefore, to the authorities cited at the bar on this point, and admit their entire correctness. Esp. N. P. 590, cites 2 Bulst. 312; Solomons v. Dawes, 1 Esp. 83. But if the refusal do not turn upon the supposed want of authority, if the party waives any inquiry into the authority, or admits its sufficiency, and puts his refusal upon another distinct ground, which cannot in point of law be supported, there the refusal under such circumstances, is presumptive evidence of a- conversion. If, for instance, the party puts his refusal upon the ground, that the property is his own, or that he has a lien upon it, and such claim is unfounded; or if his objection to a delivery be frivolous or fraudulent, there he cannot shelter himself from the legal presumption of a conversion, which his unjust refusal authorizes. Whoever undertakes tor-tiously to deal with the property of another as his own, or tortiously detains it from the owner, is in contemplation of law, guilty of a conversion of it.
These principles may be easily applied to the present ease. It is not now disputed that Mr. Gilpin, as agent of the plaintiff, had full authority to demand the property. If then he tendered a sum to the defendant more than sufficient to pay all the just *440claims, which he had against the property, and if the defendant was well satisfied of the existence of Gilpin’s authority, and in fact waived any particular examination of it, claiming to retain the property upon other distinct grounds, which cannot in point of law be sustained, his refusal to deliver the property to Gilpin, is, under such circumstances, evidence of a conversion of the property.
This leads us to a consideration of the claims set up by the defendant. The principles of law applicable to these claims do not involve any real difficulty. Hardy, the master, was not the consignee of any part of the cargo, and had no other control over the cargo, than what belonged to him in his character as master. The brig was bound to Quebec, in Canada, and under the stipulations of the charter party, the cargo was there to be delivered to the consignees. Hardy, as master, had a right in the course of the voyage, m case of necessity, and to enable him to complete the voyage, to hy-pothecate the vessel or cargo, or to sell a part of the latter, for the payment of any necessary expenses incurred in any port into which the vessel might put in distress. The Gratitudine, 3 G. Eob. Adm. 240. If, therefore, it became necessary to repair the vessel at Newport, in order to proceed on the voyage, I have no doubt that the master might, upon the failure of all other means to obtain money, sell a part of the cargo for this purpose. But if, on the other hand, there was no intention to prosecute the voyage; if it were totally abandoned, either fraudulently or fairly, I do exceedingly doubt, if the master had any authority whatsoever to sell any part of the cargo for the payment of any expenses, except such as grew out of the circumstances of the cargo itself. It was not a sale for the benefit of the cargo, nor connected with the interests of the voyage; and the law has not invested him with any authority to my knowledge, under such circumstances, to apply one man’s property to another man’s use. But I dwell the less on this point, because the present suit is not brought to contest the sale already made of part of the cargo, or the application of the proceeds. It is brought only for the residue of the cargo yet remaining in the hands of the defendant. In the present ease the master absolutely broke up the voyage at Newport, fraudulently, as it is contended, and certainly with much apparent reason, though I do not meddle much with that question. He procured the brig to be condemned by surveyors of his own voluntary appointment, and sold her at public auction for a paltry sum, as utterly unseaworthy. She was bought in, either for himself or for Potter, the defendant, and then refitted; and after-wards she proceeded upon a new enterprise to Wilmington, in North-Oarolina. In what manner and for what purposes the proceeds of the cargo, which was sold, were applied, is unknown to the court, for the defendant has not chosen to submit to us any account whatsoever of his proceedings in this respect. It does however appear, that the master and seamen’s wages for the voyage, as far as due, were paid out of the proceeds, as well as the repairs made upon the brig. Now the master certainly had no right to apply the proceeds of the cargo to the payment of his own or the seamen’s wages, or to the disbursements and expenses of a new voyage, with which the plaintiff had no connexion. And if he fraudulently broke up the voyage at Newport, there is not a pretence to say, that he had any legitimate authority over the cargo, beyond that of providing for its safe custody. Now the defendant, as the agent of the master, could not place.himself in a better situation than his principal. He was perfectly conusant of all the facts, and was the adviser of the master; and if he chose to make advances to the master, under such circumstances, knowing him not to be consignee of the cargo, it was at his own peril. The master could not give him any lien or security on the cargo for such advances, unless he could have sold or hypothecated a part of the goods for the same purpose; and we have already seen that he can do so only in cases of necessity m the course and for the accomplishment of the voyage. It is incumbent, therefore, on the defendant, to show what the advances were, and for what purposes made, and further to establish that the case was such in point of necessity,' that the master might properly pledge the cargo for such advances. If he fail to show the necessity of such advances; or if he has been fully paid by the proceeds already in his hands, all that he could justly claim, as against the plaintiff; or lastly, if the sum tendered to him exceeded all that was rightfully his due, then the refusal to deliver the 203 hogsheads of rum was tortious, and the plaintiff may well maintain the present action. The defendant cannot set up a lien on the rum, which the master had no legal right to create. The case, indeed, would warrant me in holding still stronger doctrines; but I am persuaded that these axe sufficient for its decision.
Another question has been made at the bar, whether the rum. though in the defendant’s warehouse, being under the locks of the government, and in. its custody, this action can be maintained against the defendant, it not being in his possession at the time of the demand and refusal. But I am of opinion, that this question does not in fact arise in this case. Previous to the ultimate demand, the government had expressly relinquished all control and custody of the rum; and this was made known to the defendant's agent. The defendant himself not only claimed at all times to be rightfully possessed of the property, subject to *441the rights of the government, bnt actually claimed a lien on it to a considerable extent, founded on this possession. He never relinquished this possession, and it does not under these circumstances lie in his mouth to deny his possession for one purpose, and assert it for another.
The last question is, what is the rule by which the damages, if the plaintiff be entitled to recover, are to be assessed. I am of opinion, that the true rule is the value ■of the property at the market' price, at the time of the conversion. The defendant claims to have a deduction made of the amount of duties which would accrue on the rum if regularly imported. At first, X inclined to think this deduction was reasonable, but on reflection, I have changed my opinion. No duties have been paid upon the rum, no duties are by law payable, for the rum was prohibited from importation from Jamaica, in a British vessel, by the recent act of congress. Act April 18, 1818, e. 05 [3 Story’s Laws, 1677; 3 Stat. 432, c. 70]. The defendant never gave any bonds for the payment of duties, and is in no shape liable to pay them. The rum was landed for re-exportation, and the plaintiff was desirous, with the consent of government, of re-exporting it. But the defendant has wrongfully prevented the re-exportation. What right, then, can the defendant have to an allowance for duties which he has never paid, and is not liable to pay? What reason is there, that the plaintiff should suffer a loss, which has been occasioned by a tortious conversion of the defendant? In. my judgment, it does not lie in the mouth ■of a wrong doer to set up such a claim. The duties may never yet become payable; and but for the wrongful act of the defendant, would not become payable; and if any loss be sustained, it should be borne by the party, through whose instrumentality it has occurred, and not by an innocent shipper.
Verdict for the plaintiff, for the full value of the rum, without deducting duties.