Court case(1890) ILR 14 Bom 57

Hanmandas sold goods to a buyer at another station and consigned them by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, taking the railway receipt in his own name as consignee rather than in the buyer's, with the price still unpaid. The railway delivered the goods to the buyer without production of the receipt. The buyer did not pay, and the seller sued the railway for the value of the goods.

The Bombay High Court held the railway liable. By taking the railway receipt in his own name the seller reserved control over the goods: the railway held them as his bailee and was bound to deliver only to the holder of the receipt. The seller had not lost his lien by delivering the goods to the carrier, since he had reserved the right of disposal, and the railway's delivery to the buyer without the receipt was wrongful.