Schrock v. Gillingham

This is the third time in a little more than two years in which we have had before us the question of who sustains the loss, as between the purchaser and seller of real property, when a third party handling the transaction embezzles the money received from the purchaser instead of delivering it to the seller. In each of the two prior cases, Lieb v. Webster, 30 Wn. (2d) 43, 190 P. (2d) 701, and Angell v. Ingram, 35 Wn. (2d) 582, 213 P. (2d) 944, the loss has fallen upon the purchaser, not because he was the purchaser but because he had executed escrow instructions directing the third party not…