DOCK WARRANT. A written instrument given by a dock-ow Her to the owner of goods therein described, acknowledging their receipt and engaging to deliver them to the owner or to his assignee. it. is a species of 'warehouse re ceipt. It differs from a hill of lading at com mon law in a very important respect—it. is not a symbol of the goods for which it is given, and its assignment and delivery, even to a purchaser of the goods for value, does not have the legal effect of a delivery of the goods themselves, while the indorsement and delivery of a bill of lading does. The reasons assigned for this difference are two: ( ) A bill of lading is an ancient mercantile document governed by the rules of the law merchant, while a dock lvarrant is mod ern and controlled by common-law principles. (2) A bill of lading is the representative of goods which are at sea or in the possession of a common carrier on land. One who transfers this
document does all that it is possible for him to do to give possession of the goods to the pur chaser. On the other hand, it is always pos sible for parties to a sale and purchase of goods in a dock-owner's possession to make an actual transfer of that possession.
The foregoing doctrine of the common law has been changed by the Factors Act in England, which puts dock warrants on the same footing with bills of lading. As a species of warehouse receipts they are declared by statute to he ne gotiable in many of our States.
Consult: Blackburn, Contract of Rule (2d ed., London, 18s5) ; Benjamin, Treatise On the Lau) of Rale of Personal Property (7th ed., Bennett. editor, Boston. 18991; Stevens, The Elements of Mercantile Laze (3d ed., London, 1900).