56 



FAIRS AND MARKETS OVERT, ETC. 



The general 

 riile of law. 



When market 

 overt is held. 



Where market 

 overt is held. 



What held to 

 be Market 

 overt without 

 the City of 

 London. 



What held to 

 be Market 

 overt within 

 the City of 

 London. 



pence -unless in open Market, and directed every bargain 

 and sale to be contracted in the presence of credible 

 witnesses (a). 



The general Rule of the law of England is, that a man 

 who has no authority to sell cannot, by making a sale, 

 transfer the property to another. And the only exception 

 to this rule is the case of sales in Market overt (b), when 

 the purchaser's title is good against all the world (c). 



This exception, however, only applies to bond Jide sales 

 commenced and perfected in Market overt ; that is, where 

 the goods sold are actually in the Market, and where both 

 the sale and delivery of them take place therein {d). It 

 does not extend to gifts ; nor to sales of pawns taken to any 

 pawnbroker in London, or within two miles thereof ; nor 

 to sales of goods belonging to the Sovereign ; nor to sales 

 made between sunset and sunrise (e). 



Market overt in the country is only held on the special 

 days provided for particular towns by charter or pre- 

 scription, but in London every day, except Simday, is 

 Market day {a). 



The Market place, or spot of ground set apart by 

 custom, or established under powers conferred by a modern 

 Act of Parliament (/'), for the sale of particular goods, is 

 also in the country the only Market overt, but in the 

 city of London by the custom of London every Shop 

 {except pau-JibroJiers) in which goods are exposed publicly 

 for sale is Market overt, but for such things only as the 

 owner professes to trade in (a). 



Without the city of London, Market overt is an open, 

 public and legally-constituted Market (g). Therefore a 

 mere Repository for Horses, such as Eea's Repository in 

 Southwark, is not Market overt {h). 



But within the city of London a sale in an open shop 

 of goods usually dealt in there, such sale being of the 

 goods in bulk and not by sample, and there not only 

 commenced but also completed (/), is a sale in Market 



(ff) 2 Bla. Com. 449. 



[b) See per Abbott, C. J., Djjer 

 V. Tearsoji, 3 B. & C. 42. 



(c) Cundy v. Lindsay, L. R., 3 

 App. Cas. 459; 47 L. J., Q. B. 

 481; 38 L. T., N. S. 573. 



{d) Chitty on Coutr. 10th ed. 35G. 

 (e) Benj. on Sales, 2nd ed. 8. 

 (/) Ganhj v. Ledwidge, "10 Ir. R., 

 C, L. 33, Q. B. 



{(/) See Com. Dig. Market; per 

 Jervis, C. J., Lee v. Bayes, 18 C. B. 

 601. 



[h) Leev. Bayes, 18 C. B. COL 

 ((') Crane v. London Lock Co., 33 

 L. J., Q. B. 224. It will be ob- 

 served that the sale must be of 

 goods usually dealt in at the shop. 

 Thus a scrivener's shop is not a 

 market overt for plate. So Smith- 



