5. To deliver goods without obtaining the negotiable receipt therefor and leave such receipt outstanding.
It is also made criminal for one to deposit and take a nego tiable receipt for goods for which he has no title, or which are mortgaged or subject to a lien, and later to negotiate this for value with intent to deceive and without disclosing the defect of title or the existence of the lien or mortgage. Since an agent of a warehouseman may be authorized to make the signature of the warehouseman, the issue of a receipt by an agent for goods which have not in fact been received is criminal and makes the ware houseman responsible to the transferee of the receipt for the goods which it states have been received.
The United States Warehouse Act The provisions of the United States Warehouse Act of 1916 have greatly improved the financial standing of warehouse receipts, for which purpose it was passed. The act defines "warehouse" as including "every building, structure, or other protected inclosure in which any agricultural product is or may be stored for interstate or foreign commerce." And the term "agricultural product" means cotton, wool, grains, tobacco, and flaxseed, or any of these.
By the terms of the act the Secretary of Agriculture is au thorized to inspect, classify, and license warehouses and to prescribe, within the limitations of the act, the duties of ware housemen conducting licensed warehouses. The licenses are issued for one year, subject to renewal upon satisfactory showing. The warehouseman is put under bond to observe the obligations laid by the state and by the act upon warehousemen, as well as those assumed by him under contracts with his respective depositors.
The Secretary is also authorized to license competent persons to grade agricultural products stored or to be stored in a ware house licensed under the act and to certificate the grade, or to weigh and certificate the weight, or both. These licenses are subject to revocation by the Secretary whenever he is satisfied that abuses are being practiced by the licensee.
The licensed warehouseman is forbidden to discriminate among applicants for storage space. The products stored in
licensed warehouses are inspected and graded by persons duly licensed to grade the same under this act. The warehouseman is required to keep the agricultural products of one depositor so far separate from those of other depositors, and from other products of the same depositor for which a separate receipt has been issued, as to permit at all times the identification and redelivery of the products deposited. But, if authorized by agreement or by custom, a warehouseman may mingle fungible products with others of the same kind and grade, and is liable to each depositor for the care and redelivery of his share of the mass. He is forbidden to mix fungible agricultural products of different grades.
For all agricultural products stored for interstate or foreign commerce in a licensed warehouse, original receipts must be issued by the warehouseman, but he is forbidden to issue receipts for products not actually stored in the warehouse at the time of the issuance of the receipts. These receipts embody the location of the warehouse, the date of issue, the consecutive number of the receipt, a statement whether they are bearer or order receipts, the rate of storage charges, a description of the products stored, including the quantity and the identification marks, a statement of the grade according to standards promulgated by the United States, a statement whether the warehouseman is sole or part owner or no owner at all of the stored products, a statement of the advances made and of the liabilities incurred for which the warehouseman claims a lien, and such other terms and conditions as the Secretary of Agriculture may prescribe, and the signature of the warehouseman or his authorized agent. Unless otherwise required by the law of the state wherein the warehouse is located, when requested by the depositor of other than fungible agricul tural products, a receipt omitting the statement of the grade according to the official standards of the United States may be issued, if it has plainly and conspicuously embodied in its terms a provision that such receipt is not negotiable.