Williams-Richardson Co. v. New Orleans N.E.R. Co.

The principle that ought to govern this case — and that is overlooked in the majority opinion — is that, where one or the other of two parties whose mistakes have caused a loss must suffer the loss, and where neither of them has intended to do wrong, the one who was primarily or mainly at fault, and whose mistake was the cause of the other’s mistake, must bear the loss.

The plaintiff, Williams-Richardson Company, Limited, has a wholesale dry goods establishment in New Orleans, La. Among the regular customers of the establishment were the firm of W. H. Magee & Co., at Purvis, Miss., and the…