The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-06-13
THE LAW ABOUT BUYING AND
SELLING LIVE STOCK.

buyer beware. The meaning is,
that when a man purchases a horse,
COW or any other Article OF personal
property, he must look out for him.
self. If farmer buys a horse and
makes no inquiries as to its sound
ness or quietness, and the seller
makes no statements in rega'd to
these qualities, and the animal turns
out to be stone blind, or to be such
an inveterate kicker that he is prac-
tically useless, the purchaser must
stand the loss, and cannot fall back
on the seller for damages. The
buyer should beware before pur-
chasing. This rule of ''let the buyer
beware" applies to every sale of per
sonal property, unless there has been
either an express warranty or an
implied warranty or unless there
has been fraud, or unless false repre-
sentations have been made by the
seller as an inducement to the sale.
In order for a seller to bind him
self by an express warranty, 1t is not
necessary for him to use the word
warrant or any particular form of
expression. Any affirmation made
at the time of the sale is warrant,
provided it is so intended. If the
vendor says, "This horse is sound, !"
it is warranty of soundness. When
he states that the animal is free from
vice, it is a warranty of freedom
from vice. In case where the seller
said, 81 will MT warrant, but the
horse IS sound so far as | know, :"
the court held it to amount to war
ranty that he did not know the ami
NAL to be unsound. 1t may be in
terred that a horse is warranted
sound If the seller says he is "all
right" 1t is not necessary that a
warranty should he in writing A
statement of fact constituting a war.
ranty is to be distinguished from a
mere expression OF opinion. When
the vendor states an opinion or his
Judgment on a matter of which he
has no special knowledge, and on
which the buyer himself may also be
to have an opinion, it is
not a warranty, but if he assumes to
assert fact concerning the property
under consideration of which the
buyer is ignorant, such an assertion
is warranty. In order to make a
warranty binding it must be made at
the time of the sale, or pending the
so that it may be con-
considered as one of the induce
ments of the trade. If made before
the negotiations have commenced in
any way, or if after the bargain is
completed and the animal sold, the
seller says he warrants him to be
sound, no action can be brought on
it, as there was no consideration for
the statement. A promise or agree
ment without some consideration is
not binding. Where an express
warranty is made in writing as to
any particular quality, or against
any particular defect, the law sup
poses that the whole warranty is in
cluded in the writing, and evidence
is excluded of any other. Thus, il
a man gives writing warranting a
horse or COW to be sound, evidence
cannot be introduced to show that
he also warranted it to be kind,
gentle or free from vice. 1t is held
that a general warranty does not
cover patent or obvious defects, nor
defects which are apparent on simple
inspection, requiring no skill to dis
cover them, unless some article was
used to conceal such defects, nor de-
fects which are known to the pur-
chaser at time of sale. They are
supposed to have been taken into
consideration at the time the price
was agreed on. OF course the seller
may make such a warranty if he SO
desires.
There is ordinarily no implied
warranty of quality. The expires
sion which one often hears that "a
sound price means a sound horse
is not generally held to be good in
law South Carolina and Louisiana
are the only States in which it has
been so decided. When an animal
is sold by description or is ordered
for a particular purpose, and a par
ticular animal is not selected by the
buyer, and no opportunity is given
for inspection, there is an implied
warranty that it shall correspond
with the description and be fitted for
the purpose tor which it was ordered.
For example. if a man orders a sad
die horse for his child to ride, and
the person to whom the order is
given delivers a horse of ugly dis,
position, never broken to the sad
die, the purchaser would have d
good cause of action for breach o
an implied warranty that the horse
was a saddle horse and suitable fol
a child to ride The principal i'm
piled warranty IS that OF the title.
The law in regard to this, in a few
words, is as follows In sales of per
sonal property by person in pos
session, and under such circum
stances that he appears to be the
owner, there is an implied warranty
that the property is his, and if the
purchaser loses the property by the
true owner taking it from him he
can recover the price paid in a sui
on the implied warranty of title
This is so whether he knew the de
feet in his title or not, and whether
Il