Court Opinion

ID: 6634304
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-20 20:39:09.799785+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:59:02.136512
License: Public Domain

Christiancy J.
If, in addition to what appears in this case, it had further appeared that the plaintiff below, when he sold the property, lcnew it to be diseased, or had it appeared that he was the keeper of a meat market or butcher’s shop and was engaged in the business of selling meat for food, and therefore bound or presumed to know whether it was fit for that purpose, I should have concurred in the opinion my brethren have expressed. But as the case does not show that plaintiff knew any thing more of the condition of the property than the purchasers, who seem to have had the same opportunity to judge for themselves, and plaintiff is not shown to have been engaged in a business which would authorize any presumption of knowledge, I do not think that in making this casual sale he was under any obligation of ascertaining at his peril the condition of the property in this respect.
In such a case the maxim of caveat em,ptor should, I think, apply. I therefore concur in the opinion of the Circuit Judge who tried the cause, as in my view founded on the better reasoxr, and supported by the greater weight of authority.