Utley v. Donaldson/Dissent Strong
United States Supreme Court
William R. Utley v. John W. Donaldson
No. 151. Argued: December 22, 1876 --- Decided: January 15, 1877
MR. JUSTICE STRONG, with whom concurred MR. JUSTICE CLIFFORD and MR. JUSTICE HUNT, dissenting.
I dissent from the judgment given in this case. Before the plaintiffs received the bonds, and before they accepted or paid the draft drawn upon them by the defendants, they were notified that the defendants would sell without recourse, and that they were unwilling to run any risk. They were requested to examine, and telegraph to the defendants whether the bonds were genuine, and this as a precaution of the defendants against risk. The letter of the defendants clearly manifested an intention not to deliver the bonds unless they were genuine, or unless the plaintiffs would take them at their own risk. On any other terms the plaintiffs had a right to take them. Inquiry and notice to defendants afterwards would have been idle, and would have been no precaution. Consequently the receipt of the bonds by the plaintiffs, after the notice given to them, can have no other meaning than that they took them at their own risk.
MR. JUSTICE DAVIS did not sit in this case.
Notes[edit]
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse