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and they are responsible for any damage to the goods caused by their removal to an insecure or improper place of storage. The keeper of the warehouse, as the agent of the bailees, is responsible to them for any damage resulting from his unauthorized acts. 6 Cal. 648.

SEC. 11. A party, by pledging negotiable securities, transferable by delivery, loses all right to the securities, when transferred by the pledgee in good faith to a third party. If the pledge is of a certificate of stock, which may pass by delivery, a bona fide purchaser, or subsequent pledgee, may hold the stock against the real owner; otherwise, no person receiving such security would be safe. In the first place, the person receiving would be obliged to ascertain (what in most instances it would be impossible to ascertain) whether the security belonged to the person from whom he received it, or was only deposited as security with him by some other person. Although warrants drawn by officers of a government upon its disbursing officers, might not be strictly called evidences of indebtedness, yet the owner having once pledged them with another, reposing confidence in his pledge, any person subsequently acquiring them in good faith from such pledge, must hold them against the original owner. The pledge in such a case should be treated in the transaction as the agent of the owner, and the owner should be bound by his acts in the premises. 5 Cal. 261, 262.

SEC. 12. Collateral security may be held in as many 'various ways, and subject to as many different conditions, as there is variety in the objects and character of contracts; thus, personal property, merchandise or stock, may be held as collateral security, in the nature of a mortgage, in which the parties could agree that, in case of non-payment, the right of property should become absolute, and that without notice or foreclosure; or, it may be held as a pledge, the right of restoration upon the payment of the debt being reserved to the debtor; and it is competent for the parties to contract, that the goods or stock thus pledged as collateral may be sold with or without notice, and upon nonpayment, without demand of payment. So, also, goods or stock, or other securities, may be held by the creditor

under an absolute transfer, in trust for the debtor, with the power in the creditor to sell and reimburse himself for advances made, or to provide himself from time to time. with funds to meet the additional demands of the debtor, and to pay his drafts; or, in other words, it is competent for parties to foresee these contracts to suit themselves, and courts of law will be governed by the plain import of the language of the contract in each particular case. 3 Cal. 159, 160.

SEC. 13. In case of a naked pledge as collateral security, the authority to sell, when not expressly given, cannot be exercised without demand of payment and notice. 3 Cal. 161.

SEC. 14. A pledgee of chattels has a right at common law, if the pledge is not redeemed within the stipulated time, to sell the property pledged, at auction, by giving public notice of the time and place of sale; and if the sale does not satisfy the debt, he may recover the deficiency from the pledgor by an action at law. 26 Cal. 577.

SEC. 15. The common-law right of the pledgee to sell the pledge upon the default of the pledgor, and thereafter bring his action for any balance remaining unsatisfied, is wholly unaffected by chapter one of title eight of the practice act. 26 Cal. 578.

SEC. 16. Where personal things are pledged for the payment of a debt, the general property and the legal title always remain in the pledger; the special property and the possession, or right of possession, being in the pledgee, the pledger having the right to restoration of the property on payment of the debt. 3 Cal. 162.

Where the plaintiff drew several drafts upon the defendant, who held a deposit of securities for the payment of a debt, directing him to pay them "from the proceeds of the securities in his hands;" this was held to give an authority to the plaintiff to sell the securities deposited to meet the drafts; and a sale made under such authority is good, without notice to the plaintiff of the time and place of sale, or previous demand of payment. 3 Cal. 158.

SEC. 17. A party placing money in the hands of another for the purpose of making a bet on an election, in the name

of the bailee, but for the benefit of the bailor, may retract the illegal act of making the bet, and does not forfeit the money by reason of the illegality of the purpose for which it was deposited. 11 Cal. 343.

The bailor does not part with the ownership by allowing it to be used for his benefit, though in the name of another. The money in the hands of the agent remains, as between him and the principal, the money of the principal. 11 Cal. 343.

Upon the retraction of the wager, the right to the possession of the money is in the agent or bailee, and he may maintain an action for it where the bailor interposes no objection. 11 Cal. 343.

Nor can an attaching creditor of the bailee, levying on the money in the hands of a stakeholder with whom it has been deposited by the bailee, claim that the bailor is estopped by having allowed the bailee to use the money in his own name, when the specific money was in question and could be distinguished. The creditor had not been misled by acts or declarations of the bailor, nor had he given credit to the bailor by reason thereof. 11 Cal. 343.

The stakeholder being informed of the rights of the bailor, was bound to protect those rights by resisting in some way, the pleadings against him as a garnishee, the bailor being no party thereto; nor will he be protected by a judgment improperly entered against him, ordering him to pay the money to the attaching creditor. 11 Cal. 343.

SEC. 18. The general rule is, that in an action by the bailor, the bailee will not be allowed to set up title in a third party. 9 Cal. 574. There is, however, an exception to this rule in cases where the bailor's possession was obtained by fraud. 9 Cal. 574. Thus, where the defendant was employed to sell certain goods then in plaintiff's possession, and the goods were claimed by the assignees of a bankrupt, and notice of the claim given to defendant before the sale, the plaintiffs having obtained possession by means of a fraudulent collusion with the insolvent was admitted as a defense. 9 Cal. 574.

If the bailee received the goods from the bailor, innocently, under the impression made by the bailor that he is

the owner thereof, or has the right to dispose of them in the manner he is doing, and therefore promises to return the goods to the bailor, such a promise ought not to be regarded as binding, because obtained through a false impression made willfully by the bailor; and in every such case the goods should be delivered to the true owner, especially if he demanded the same, instead of the wrongful bailor. 9 Cal. 574, 575.

It may be correct enough to hold, where the real owner of the property does not appear to assert his right to it, that the carrier or bailee should not be permitted, of his own mere motion, to set up a defense against the bailor, such right for him. But it would be repugnant to every principle of honesty to say that, after the right owner has demanded the goods of the bailor, the latter shall not be permitted, in an action brought against him by the bailor for the goods to defend against his claim, by showing clearly and conclusively that the plaintiff acquired possession of the goods, either fraudulently, tortiously, or feloniously, without having obtained any right thereto. A different rule would be productive of great hardship to the bailee in such cases; for when the adverse title is made known to the carrier, if he is forbidden to deliver the goods to any other person, he acts at his peril, and if the adverse title is well founded, and he resists it, he is liable to an action for the recovery of the goods by the person setting up such adverse title. 9 Cal. 575.

Thus, where the defendant, a master of a vessel, received certain goods of plaintiff, to be delivered at a certain place, which he failed to do, and in the action brought thereupon he offered to prove that the goods belonged to a third party, who had forbidden such delivery, and that plaintiff had obtained possession of the goods by fraud, it was held that he was entitled to prove such facts. 9 Cal. 573.

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SECTION 1. A common carrier of goods is one who undertakes, for hire or reward, to transport the goods of such as choose to employ him, from place to place. Steamboat companies, railway companies, masters of vessels, bargemen, ferry-men Smith vs. Stewart, (3 Pa. St. R. 342), proprietors of stage-coaches and stage-wagons, which ply from place to place (Beekman vs. Shouse, 5 Rawle, 179), truckmen, cartmen, porters who carry parcels in the same town from place to place; indeed, all persons who make it a business to carry goods for any who may wish to employ them, for a reward or hire, are considered as common carriers.

SEC. 2. But a forwarding merchant, who has no interest in the conveyances which carry away the goods intrusted to him, is not a common carrier (Platts vs. Hibbard, 7 Cow. 497); nor the owner of a cart or carriage, let for a specifie space of time, to go to such places as the employer may direct, as a cab-driver or a hackney-coachman, such is not a carrier. Brind vs. Dale, 8 Car. & P. 207.

SEC. 3. And a distinction must be made between one who carries goods only occasionally, although he may receive hire, and a common carrier-a man who is employed for hire, pro haec vice only, and does not make the carriage of goods his constant employment, is not liable as a common carrier. Satterlee vs. Groat, 1 Wend. 272.

Obligations of Common Carriers.

SEC. 4. Common carriers of goods are: 1. Required to fulfill certain obligations arising from the nature of their employment. 2. Liable for certain losses. 3. Entitled to certain rights either under an express or implied agreement. Each of these will be separately examined.

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