''Carrier's Case'' (''Anonymous v. The Sheriff of London'', ''The Case of Carrier Who Broke Bulk'') (1473) was a landmark English

court case A legal case is in a general sense a dispute between opposing parties which may be resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case is typically based on either civil or criminal law. In most legal cases there are one or mo ...

in the history of the definition of

larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Engl ...

.Rethinking Criminal Law, 68, (1978), Fletcher''Criminal Law - Cases and Materials'', 7th ed. 2012,

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; John Kaplan,

Robert Weisberg Robert I. Weisberg is an American lawyer. He is an Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, and an expert on criminal law and criminal procedure, as well as a leading scholar in the law and literature movement. Weisberg w ...

, Guyora Binder,

/ref> Until this ratio decidendi, ruling, when an owner voluntarily handed over physical possession of property to the custody of another, and it was then

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(in title: made that of another), there was no felonious larceny as larceny required trespass of the owner's or bailee's place or person (violence or the threat of violence). The

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

courts henceforth adopted the " breaking bulk" doctrine. If someone transporting a bulk or bale (bundle) of merchandise (the carrier) on behalf of someone else, and breaks it open without permission, express or implied, (thus converts them to the carrier's own use), it is the

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

. The case was significant because in

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

at that time, larceny required a

trespass Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels Trespass to chattels is a tort whereby the infringing party has intentionally (or, in Australia, negligently) interfered with ...

by force and arms (''

vi et armis Trespass ''vi et armis'' was a kind of lawsuit at common law called a tort. The form of action alleged a trespass upon person or property ''vi et armis'', Latin for "by force and arms." The plaintiff would allege in a pleading that the act commi ...

'') or against the peace, which did not occur if the person was willingly handed the bulk or bales of items. The breaking of the bulk was found to be the required force needed in the element of trespass. In the underlying case, one justice (Chokke .C.P stated that if the carrier sold the entire bale unbroken, then kept the proceeds for his own use, the act would not have the (at the time) element of (violent) trespass, so would not be larceny, but the breaking of the bulk satisfied the trespass element.

Facts

A carrier was hired by a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...

merchant to transport bales of

woad ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...

(a type of

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...

) to the port in

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. He opened the bales and took the goods for himself. Some of it came into possession of the

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...

. The sheriff gave it to the King (forfeited as "

waif A waif (from the Old French ''guaif'', "stray beast")Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/waif (accessed: June 02, 2008) is a person removed, by hardship, loss or other helpless circumstance ...

", a word to signify runaways or stolen goods). The merchant sued the sheriff to return the goods; he argued that the goods were not stolen, that the carrier only had temporary property rights and so the goods could not be given to the King. The Sheriff argued that the goods were stolen, that it was a felony and therefore properly forfeited to the King as

. The legal relationship between the carrier and the merchant, as now, would have been seen as one of

bailee Bailment is a legal relationship in common law, where the owner transfers physical possession of personal property ("chattel") for a time, but retains ownership. The owner who surrenders custody to a property is called the "bailor" and the ind ...

and

bailor Bailment is a legal relationship in common law, where the owner transfers physical possession of personal property ("chattel") for a time, but retains ownership. The owner who surrenders custody to a property is called the "bailor" and the ind ...

, such that bailees have a duty of reasonable care for others' property they possess. The merchant had royal safe conduct covering his goods. This meant that if the goods were stolen they would not be given to the Crown by the use of a waif. This happened in medieval times when a good was stolen. When the stolen goods were found, they became property of the King.

Judgment

The judges all agreed that the actions of the carrier constituted larceny but they could not agree on a rationale. The prevailing reason was provided by

Lord Chokke Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

who concluded that the carrier had lawful possession of the bales only. The merchant retained constructive possession of the contents. Therefore, when the carrier broke open the bales and removed the contents, he committed the crime of

because he had taken the contents from the possession of the merchant. The merchant had a royal safe conduct covering his goods. The merchant argued that this protection meant that even if his goods were stolen, as the court had determined, they would not be forfeited to the King as waif. The court agreed with the merchant on this second point and the Sheriff was required to return the goods to the merchant.As Fletcher notes in his book, Rethinking Criminal Law, the courts could have obtained the same result by following established

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great v ...

. There was no apparent need to create the legal fiction of breaking bulk or to consider the consequent issue of whether "safe conduct" protected the merchant whose property had been stolen from seizure as waif. The carrier had temporary possession of the goods with permission of the merchant so had no right to 'break bulk', i.e., he broke up the bales and began to sell them. The fact that he broke bulk shows the intention to commit larceny. He was therefore guilty; the goods would ordinarily forfeit to the king absolutely (in that era). However, due to the royal safe conduct that the merchant had, he was entitled to his goods back.

Facts

Judgment

See also

References

Further reading