ONE WHO BUYS LUMBER IS LIABLE THOUGH HE TRANSFERS IT BEFORE DELIVERY.
Question—An individual buys a carload of lumber for future delivery and before it is delivered he forms a partnership with two other persons and turns the order over to the firm. Delivery of the lumber is made to this firm. Please say whether the individual is liable, or only the partnership. It is a limited partnership and the buyer has only a certain definite amount at stake with it.
Reply: This is simply the case of an individual who has purchased goods and then has sold or transferred them before they have come into his actual possession. Such cases, that is, of a second sale before delivery to the first purchaser, are very common, and the original purchaser remains liable precisely as if delivery has been made to him and he had afterward disposed of the goods as he saw fit. In the case our correspondent puts the seller may look to the first buyer unless he has agreed to release him and look to the firm.
A LUMBER SALESMAN GENERALLY HAS NO POWER TO BIND HIS PRINCIPAL.
Question—One of our traveling salesmen has just sent in a larger order than we feel safe in filling for that particular customer on the liberal terms of credit allowed him in the same contract. Are we compelled to fill the order, or may we reject it without incurring any legal liability?
Reply: Ordinarily a traveling salesman is authorized merely to take orders and submit them to his principal for acceptance or rejection. He has no power to bind his employer irrevocably by a contract of sale. Our correspondents are justified in refusing to fill an order sent in by their salesman unless the latter was expressly authorized to make a valid and binding sale upon his employers’ behalf, or unless traveling salesmen are usually clothed with this power. In the latter case each salesman will be presumed to have the powers usually possessed by men of this class, unless the buyer had notice of a limitation upon this general and usual power in the case of the salesman with whom he was dealing.
USING LUMBER WITHOUT CONSENT OF SHIPPER WHERE QUALITY IS DISPUTED.
Question—We shipped a carload of lumber to a party and they complained of the quality and refused to settle in full. We insisted upon a settlement in accordance with invoice, or re-inspection of the entire carload by an inspector that would be satisfactory to both parties. We sent a man to look at the lumber and found that it was put in a dry kiln without our consent, and this, of course, prevented an inspection of the lumber in its original condition. Are we correct now in insisting upon a settlement in full as invoiced, and can we maintain our action in a lawsuit?