Shell Chemical Corp. v. OWL Transfer Co.

Both parties have appealed from a judgment of the lower court, awarding to plaintiff damages. In order to avoid confusion, we shall refer to the parties respectively as the plaintiff and the defendant.

At the times involved in the litigation, the defendant was a public warehouseman. On June 11, 1953, the plaintiff delivered to the defendant, for storage, 96 drums of fertilizer containing a chemical known as Dieldrin. Prior to storage, the plaintiff had stenciled on each of the drums words showing the concentration of Dieldrin in each drum.

Thereafter, during the month of March, 1954, the plaintiff discovered that the drums had been incorrectly stenciled by it and that the true concentration of Dieldrin therein was higher than that originally shown. Accordingly, the plaintiff gave written instructions to the defendant to restencil each of the drums so as to show their true and higher concentration of Dieldrin. The defendant admittedly received the plaintiff’s written instructions. However, it never complied therewith. Had the defendant complied with the instructions, the drums would have borne evidence showing that the entire lot contained 991 pounds more of Dieldrin than was…