Toll Holdings Ltd v Stewart and Others – Fed Ct of Australia (Rares J) [2016] FCA 256 – 15 March 2016

Practice – Interpleader – Sale of goods – Buyer becoming insolvent – Goods in possession of buyer’s freight forwarder – Seller exercising right of stoppage in transitu – Whether freight forwarder entitled to interplead – Whether freight forwarder liable to seller in conversion

On 30 March 2015 Toll Holdings Ltd (Toll) and Dick Smith Electronics Pty Ltd (Dick Smith), a large domestic retailer of electronic goods, entered into a master agreement for Toll and its subsidiaries, including Toll Global Forwarding (Hong Kong) Ltd (TGF), to provide freight forwarding services to Dick Smith.