BANCO DO ESTADO DE SAO PAULO, S.A., AN INTERNATIONAL BANKING CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
INTER-OCEAN (FREE ZONE), INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1993-10-12
No. 93-495
Before HUBBART and BASKIN and COPE, JJ.
625 So. 2d 903 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1993)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

A Florida bank appealed a judgment in favor of Inter-Ocean for breach of contract involving sight drafts. The bank released goods without collecting payment on the drafts, and the court affirmed the judgment, finding the bank's claim of plaintiff consent to the variance was unsupported.


Holding

The court held that the bank breached its contract and that the plaintiff did not affirmatively assent to the variance. The court found no ratification by the plaintiff of the unauthorized action, and the plaintiff's subsequent collection efforts through alternative means did not constitute assent to the unauthorized release.


Headnotes

[1] A collecting bank breaches its contractual undertaking when it releases goods consigned to it without receiving payment on sight drafts.

[2] A collecting bank cannot unilaterally vary the terms of sight drafts without the drawer's consent.

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“the defendant at no time notified the plaintiff or obtained the plaintiffs consent to release the subject goods without receiving payment on the sight drafts, and, indeed, there is evidence that the defendant refused to respond to the plaintiffs inquiries concerning the transaction after releasing the goods and later attempted to cover-up what it had done”

Establishes that the bank's claim of consent was unsupported and the bank engaged in cover-up conduct

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Inter-Ocean sold and shipped goods from Miami, Florida to Manaus, Brazil, drawing three sight drafts on Banco Do Estado De Sao Paulo for collection. T…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal by the defendant collecting bank [Banco Do Estado De Sao Paulo, S.A.] on three sight drafts from an adverse final judgment entered after a non- jury trial in an action brought by the plaintiff drawer of the sight drafts [Inter-Ocean (Free Zone), Inc.] sounding in breach of contract arising from the plaintiffs sale and shipment of goods from Miami, Florida to Manaus, Brazil.

It is undisputed in this record that the defendant, in fact, breached its contractual undertaking with the plaintiff when the defendant released to the buyer the shipped goods consigned to it by the plaintiff without receiving payment from the buyer for such goods on the three sight drafts drawn by the plaintiff and sent to the defendant for collection. The defendant contends, however, that the plaintiff affirmatively assented to a variance of the sight drafts which, it is urged, allowed the defendant to release the consigned goods to the buyer without receiving immediate payment therefor. We cannot agree with this argument because (1) the defendant at no time notified the plaintiff or obtained the plaintiffs consent to release the subject goods without receiving payment on the sight drafts, and, indeed, there is evidence that the defendant refused to respond to the plaintiffs inquiries concerning the transaction after releasing the goods and later attempted to cover-up what it had done; (2) the plaintiff at no time ratified the defendant’s unauthorized action after it discovered what the defendant had done, a discovery which the plaintiff made through its own investigation; and (3) the subsequent unsuccessful efforts by the plaintiff to collect from the buyer by issuing other acceptance drafts to the buyer through a third party, without involving the defendant at all, represents nothing more than the plaintiffs alternative method of collecting on the original sight drafts, was plainly an effort to recoup its losses and was not, as urged, an affirmative assent to the defendant’s unauthorized release of the subject goods without receiving payment from the buyer. See § 673.3-412(3), Fla.Stat. (1991); Oxford Lake Line v. First Nat’l Bank of Pensacola, 40 Fla. 349, 24 So. 480 (1898).

We further find no merit in the defendant’s contention that the trial court incorrectly calculated the damages in this case. Without burdening this opinion with the detailed business records involved in the case, suffice it to say that we are satisfied that substantial, competent evidence was adduced below to support the money judgment entered for the face amount of the three sight drafts, minus appropriate credits, plus interest. See Pearce & Pearce, Inc. v. Kroh Bros. Dev. Co., 474 So. 2d 369 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985); S. Kornreich & Sons, Inc. v. Titan Agencies, Inc., 423 So. 2d 940 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982).

For the above-stated reasons, the final judgment under review is, in all respects,

Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw