IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 877 



" The owner of a horse sold by auction, has no 

 right under the usual condition of a sale, that the 

 highest bidder shall be the purchaser, to employ any 

 person to bid for him for the purpose of enhancing 

 the price : and if he do so, he cannot recover the 

 .purchase money from the buyer." 



Chief Justice Best expressed himself clearly of 

 opinion, that the action could not be maintained ; he 

 considered it a gross fraud, and nonsuited the plain- 

 tiff. A rule nisi was afterwards obtained, to set 

 aside the nonsuit ; when the case of Howard v. Cas- 

 tle, 6 T. R. 642, was quoted, and also the opinions 

 of Lord Rosslyn, in Conolly v. Parsons, 3 Ves., Jr. 

 625 ; and of Lord Alvanley, in Bramley v. Alt, con- 

 sidering Howard v. Castle as only a decision, that 

 where all the bidders, except the purchaser, are puff- 

 ers, the sale shall be void. On moving for the rule 

 m82, three of the court expressed themselves unfa- 

 vorable to it ; still it was granted, but afterwards it 

 was discharged, Mr. Serjeant Wilde not supporting 

 it. In the case of Malins v. Freeman, reported in 

 the Times of the 17th April, 1839, the final result of 

 which I have been unable to discover, the court of 

 Common Pleas granted a rule nisi for a new trial, at 



