Case Name: Kinney vs. Showdy
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1841-07
Citations: 1 Hill & Den. 544
Docket Number: 
Parties: Kinney vs. Showdy.
Judges: 
Reporter: Hill's Reports
Volume: 1
Pages: 544–544

Head Matter:
Kinney vs. Showdy.
An officer selling property at public vendue, is not bound to receive the bid of an infant: and therefore, on a sale under a tax warrant by a school district collector, where an infant bid a certain sum for the property, and the officer, without regarding his bid, struck it off to another for less; held, that he was not liable to an action for the difference between the bids.
On error from the Onondaga C. P. Action on the case by Kinney, before a justice, against Showdy, a school district collector, for selling the plaintiff’s cow on a tax warrant for $16,12!, when $25 was bid for the cow. The $25 was bid by the plaintiff’s son, who was an infant under twenty-one years of age, and the officer refused to receive the bid, and struck off the property to the next highest bidder. The justice refused to nonsuit the plaintiff, and the jury found a verdict in his favor for 8,87!, the difference between the two bids. The C. P. reversed the judgment, on the ground that there should have been a nonsuit. Kinney, therefore, brought this writ of error.
J. R. Lawrence, for plaintiff in error.
H. Worden, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
By the Court, Bronson, J.
The infant was not capable of making a binding contract for the purchase of the cow, and I think the officer was not obliged to receive his bid. True, the property might be put up again and re-sold if the infant refused to accept and pay for it; but the officer was not bound to strike off the property on an offer which, if accepted, would not make a valid contract. The court of C. P. was right in reversing the judgment.
Judgment affirmed. ¡