Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/414

 402 STONY POINT shipping amounted in the aggregate to 119 ves- sels of 16,978 aggregate tonnage. The town was settled in 1049, and the borough was in- corporated in 1801. On Aug. 9 and 10, 1814, the borough was attacked by the British fleet under Sir Thomas Hardy, but it was compelled by the volunteers and militia to retire. STOXT POLW, a small rocky promontory on the right bank of the Hudson river, in Rock- land co., N. Y., 42 m. N. of New York, at the entrance of the Highlands, and opposite Ver- planck's Point. On both these points forts were built by the Americans during the revo- lution, which were captured by Sir Henry Clinton about the first of June, 1779, strength- ened, and garrisoned ; but that on Stony Point was retaken by a bold night attack under Gen. Anthony Wayne, with 1,200 men, July 16, and the garrison of 543 officers and men made prisoners. The Americans had 15 killed and 83 wounded, and the British 63 killed. The simultaneous attack on Verplanck's Point hav- ing failed, the works on Stony Point were destroyed and abandoned on the 18th. STOPPAGE IN TRANSIT!!, in law, the arrest- ing by the seller of goods on their passage to a distant purchaser who has become insolvent. When and how the doctrine of stoppage in transitu became a part of our law cannot be definitely asserted. Its introduction was com- paratively recent. The right exists only be- tween a buyer and a seller. A surety for the price of the goods, bound to pay for them if the buyer does not, has not this right ; but one who i% substantially a seller has. Thus, one ordered by a foreign correspondent to buy goods for him, and then buying them in his own name and on his own credit, and sending them as ordered, may stop them in transitu. So may a principal who sends goods to his factor, or one who remits money for any particular pur- pose. The reception and negotiation of a bill for the goods does not defeat the right, nor does part payment. But goods cannot be stopped when they are sent to pay a precedent and existing debt. The right arises only upon actual insolvency, which need not be legal or formal bankruptcy or insolvency. It is enough if the buyer cannot pay his debts, and also that he refuses to comply with the specially agreed terms of the sale, for this is insolvency so far as the seller is concerned. When the goods are stopped, the buyer may, by payment of the price or by tender of security if they were sold on credit, defeat the stoppage and reclaim the goods. If the seller stop the goods mali- ciously, and without actual belief of the insol- vency on good grounds, he would doubtless be answerable for any damages which the buyer might sustain. The seller's right to stop the goods cannot be defeated by any sale or mort- gage thereof by the buyer, or by any claim or lien or attachment of any other person, ex- cept such lien as may arise in favor of any car- rier by whom they have been conveyed. Nice questions have arisen in respect to the tran- STOPPAGE IN TRANSITU situs. Generally speaking, the goods are in transit when they are not in the actual posses- sion either of the buyer or of the seller. But the law goes sometimes further than this, and inquires into the constructive possession ; for the goods may be in the actual possession of the seller, and yet so far constructively in the possession of the buyer that the seller cannot retain them ; or they may be in the actual pos- session of the buyer, but under such circum- stances that the seller's right is not taken away. It becomes, therefore, very important in many instances to ascertain whether the transit is complete. A carrier of goods, by land as well as by sea, acquires a lien on the goods which he carries for the freight money. The goods are still in transit, and may be stopped, so long as the carrier withholds them from the buyer by his lien for the freight, and a seller who seeks to stop them then must discharge this lien. In general, whenever a carrier enters into a new arrangement with the consignee, by which he agrees to hold the goods as the property of the consignee and at his disposal, there is a termination of the transit. Yet all acts in reference to such question must be open to ex- planation by existing circumstances, the gen- eral inquiry in such case being whether the carrier, warehouseman, wharfinger, or other person having actual possession of the goods at the time of the intended stoppage in tran- situ, was then acting as the agent of the seller or of the buyer ; for if of the latter, the tran- sit was terminated. If the buyer order the goods to be sent to some other person by any suitable conveyance without designating any one especially, or by a designated carrier who is not specifically his agent or servant, the goods remain in transitu until they reach that second person. Questions of constructive possession arise very frequently in respect to goods in the charge of warehousemen. In general, every warehouseman is the agent of any party who puts the goods in his warehouse and can take them out at his pleasure ; and therefore his possession is the possession of such party. On this point it is a material question whether any- thing remains to be done by the seller ; if noth- ing, this goes far to make the warehousing a delivery to the buyer. If a seller of goods that are warehoused delivers an order for them to a buyer, this alone may not transfer the posses- sion ; but if the buyer delivers the order to the warehouseman, this in general transfers the pos- session, and still more so if the warehouseman enters the same in his books or otherwise ac- cepts the order, so as to be responsible for the goods to the buyer. If the buyer sells to a third party, to whom the warehouseman certi- fies that the goods are transferred to his ac- count, and who thereupon pays the price, the warehouseman becomes responsible to this third party ; and if the original seller, though there remained something material to be done by him to the goods, consented to the ware- houseman's so certifying, he would be held to