Commonwealth Petroleum Co., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Petrosol International, Inc., Defendant-Appellee, 901 F.2d 1314

Summary

The distributor acted as a middleman between gas line producers and gas distributors. The distributor had no storage facilities of its own. The distributor purchased propane from a producer and immediately resold it to purchaser as an inventory purchase with the purchaser taking title and risk of loss immediately upon purchase. Before the purchaser had removed all the propane from the storage facility, a wall in the cavern of the storage facility collapsed and propane was either lost or destroyed. The district court held that the propane had been delivered to the purchaser in the hands of the bailee without being moved and that risk of loss had passed. Purchaser alleged that the controlling law was Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 1302.32(A) that placed the risk of loss on the distributor until the goods were put in the possession of a carrier. The court held that § 1302.32(A) was inapplicable and that Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 1302.53 was the controlling statute because the sale was an inventory ...