J. & J. Cunningham and Another v. John Meiklejon

Subject_1 Sale Subject_2 Delivery Subject_3 Compensation. Facts: Circumstances in which it was held that a person was not a mere custodier of goods, but the proprietor of the same under a completed contract of sale, and that he was accordingly entitled to compensate a debt due to him by the seller against the price of the goods, the seller having become bankrupt shortly after the sale.

This was an action at the instance of J. & J. Cunningham, merchants, Edinburgh, and also of Thomas Steven Lindsay, trustee on the sequestrated estates of C. & A. Christie, coal and iron masters, Gladsmuir, near Tranent, against John Meiklejon, ironfounder, Dalkeith, concluding for delivery of 50 tons of pig iron, or alternatively for the market value of the same at the date of citation.

On 17th February, immediately on his return, the defender wrote to Messrs Christie, complaining that the iron should have been sent without previous orders; complaining also of its quality, and stating that he would return such of it as had not been used.

“20 th February 1871.—We have your favour of 17th; the fifty tons iron belongs to Messrs J. & J. Cunningham, who can give you instructions regarding it.”

On the same day the defender wrote Messrs Cunningham that he declined to accept the draft in their favour; and on the following day, in answer to a letter from Messrs Cunningham, asking whether he had taken delivery of the iron, or whether it was still lying at the railway station, he wrote that the iron had been unloaded by his people, and added—“As I consider the transaction—as it is—entirely with myself and Messrs Christie, I can only personally square the transaction with them, and have written them to this effect.”