Procter & Gamble Distributing Company v. Lawrence American Field Warehousing Corp., Formerly Known as American…

Summary

The New York Court of Appeals held that the warehouseman was liable for conversion of the soybean oil and that damages are measured by the market value at the time the oil was received, not at the later date of notice. The court rejected the lower court’s credit of the down‑payment to the warehouseman, affirmed liability despite the transfer of the oil to a subsidiary, granted summary judgment on the first conversion claim, and denied summary judgment on the second claim involving the unauthorized transfer. The decision also clarified that a transfer to another subsidiary does not discharge the original warehouseman’s liability absent a novation.