50 HORSEDEALEHS, REPOSITORIES AND AUCTIONS. 



of sale, " tliat each. Horse should be sold to the highest 

 bidder;" that the plaintiff's groom attended at the sale on 

 the part of his master for the purpose of raising the price ; 

 that the last bond fide bidder had bid 12/. ; after which, 

 until the horse was knocked down to the defendant for 

 29/., he and the groom were the only bidders ; and that 

 when the defendant discovered against whom he had been 

 bidding he refused to take the Horse. Upon these facts 

 Chief Justice Best said : "I am clearly of opinion that the 

 action cannot be maintained. I have long been surprised 

 that the objection has never been taken. A man goes to 

 a sale, and is told that if he is the highest bidder he shall 

 have the article. He bids a certain sum, and a person 

 (employed by the seller) whom he does not know attends 

 and pulfs against him, and in consecpence of that he is 

 compelled to pay a much larger price than he would other- 

 wise have paid. Is not this a gross fraud ? I am pre- 

 pared to nonsuit the plaintiff." 

 Person em- It was then proved for the plaintiff, by the evidence of 



ployed to bid. ^]^g Auctioneer, that the defendant was in the habit of 

 attending sales of Horses, and that he knew the plaintiff's 

 groom was present ; and it was stated that there was a 

 case deciding that a seller has a right to have one person 

 to bid for him at the sale, if he does not do it in order to 

 impose. Chief Justice Best then said : "I agree that he 

 has such a right, but then he must declare it by the con- 

 ditions of sale. I am of opinion that a person acts in 

 opposition to the conditions of sale where the highest 

 bidder is to be the buyer, if he employs a person to bid 

 for the purpose of enhancing the price. In this case the 

 other person at the sale did not go near the ultimate sum. 

 It is impossible under these circumstances to say that 29/. 

 was the highest price contemplated by the conditions ; 

 for the defendant, under them, was entitled to have the 

 Horse at the next highest bidding to that of the only fair 

 bidder" {e). The Court of Common Pleas confirmed 

 Chief Justice Best's ruling at nisi prius ; and Mr. Justice 

 Park said : "I entirely concur in the opinion expressed 

 by Lord Mansfield ;" as to which Lord Kenyon, in Howell 

 V. Castle (/), said : " The whole of the reasoning of Lord 

 Mansfield in Bexicell v. Christie [g] is founded on the 



[e) Croicder v. Austin, 2 0. & P. 634. 

 208. iff) Bexwell v. Christie, Cowp. 



(/) Howard v. Castle, 6 T. R. 396. 



