Legal Subject: Wheat

Case Date Legal Subject Abstract
Eimbeke v. Morison, Taylor, and Company and Buchanan, Morison, and Company 1777 Trade, Foreign Trade, Wheat Buchanan, Morison, and Company was a trading firm with operations in Glasgow and Greenock. Two of the company's partners in Greenock, William Morison and James Taylor, were also partners of a separate firm, named Morison, Taylor, and Company. In the fall of 1774, Morison, Taylor, and Company commissioned George Henry Eimbeke, Hamburgh merchant, to send them several shipments of wheat and other grains. One of these shipments was placed on the George, a trading vessel owned by Buchanan, Morison, and Company. The latter company paid Eimbeke for half of this shipment, and Morison, Taylor, and Company were invoiced for the second half. The George arrived in Bristol in May 1775 and the wheat was discovered to have overheated; it was later sold at a great loss. Eimbeke brought action against the two firms, suing for the unpaid half of the George's wheat shipment. While Buchanan, Morison, and Company claimed that Morison, Taylor, and Company had expressly ordered Eimbeke to send them a shipment of wheat on the George, the latter company argued that no such order had ever been given. On November 14, 1777 the Court pronounced Buchanan, Morison, and Company liable for the value of the wheat and expenses. They then submitted a reclaiming petition, which was refused, according to handwritten marginalia on the case documents.