Defense Supplies Corp. v. Lawrence Warehouse Co.

In 1943, plaintiff, a corporate agency of the United States created pursuant to the authority contained in Section 5d of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, as amended by Act of June 25, 1940, 15 U.S.C.A. § 606b, initiated and prosecuted a plan known as the “Idle Tire Purchase Plan.” Its purpose was to create a stock pile of used and spare automobile tires in aid of the national defense. On March 1, 1943, having accumulated a quantity of tires and tubes in Sacramento, California, plaintiff contracted with defendant Lawrence Warehouse Company, a corporation engaged in the warehousing business, to store and safekeep the same. Defendant, Lawrence Warehouse Company, with the consent and approval of plaintiff, in turn contracted with defendant Capitol Chevrolet Comp.any to warehouse the tires and tubes as its agent. Previously defendant Capitol Chevrolet Company had leased from defendant Clyde W. Henry a building formerly used as an ice skating rink, in the outskirts of Sacramento, California, and the tires and tubes were stored therein. On April 9, 1943, defendant V. J. McGrew, a well drilling contractor, who was elsewhere drilling a well for defendant Henry, entered the…