Robson v. Michigan Central Railroad

Chattel Mortgages on Future Acquisitions. A chattel mortgage upon after acquired goods will hold against a bona fide purchaser with notice; he can have no better title than his vendor.

Error to Ingham. Trespass on the case against the company for damages arising from neglect to fulfill its duty as a common carrier in the transportation of certain goods described as “goods and chattels of the plaintiffs.” The court below tried the case without a jury and found that on May 6, 1876, the plaintiffs had taken the goods on a debt from one Benedict, who, on December 25, 1875, had delivered to Messrs. Kellogg & Baker, creditors of his, a chattel mortgage on his stock in trade and on goods that should be afterwards acquired in keeping it up; that a part of the goods had been afterwards bought from the plaintiffs; that plaintiffs had actual knowledge of this mortgage as early as April 24, 1876; and that the mortgagees seized the goods and removed them from the 'depot where the plaintiffs had left them for transportation by the defendants. The court also found as a conclusion of law that the plaintiffs were not entitled to the goods at the time they were seized, since they had notice of the mortgage; that the mortgage gave the mortgagees the power to seize the goods whenever the mortgagor should attempt to sell them otherwise than in the course of trade; that the mortgagees had a subsisting equity in the goods as against Benedict to seize them in payment of their debt ; and that the plaintiffs took subject to this equity. Judgment was entered for the defendant, and plaintiffs brought error.