STOPPAGE IN TRANSITU. 23 



sale of horses detained by an inn-keeper for his bill, the lien 

 ceased, and the true owner, not being the guest who incurred 

 the bill, could have claimed the price from the bu^'er. (a) 

 But a seller allowing a buyer to have a horse for a temporary 

 ride, does not thereby lose his right of retention. (6) This 

 right does not entitle the retainer to have the beneficial use 

 of the horse any more than to sell or transfer it. (c) Should 

 a seller desire to sell a retained horse, he must apply 

 for a judicial warrant to enable him to do so. (c?) A seller 

 may also retain a horse when it is allowed to remain in his 

 possession after the term of payment for it has arrived, if he 

 is not barred by assenting to a sub-sale by the purchaser 

 intimated to him.(e) Retention thus differs from the right 

 of stoppage in transitu, Avhich commences when possession 

 has ceased, and continues till delivery takes place. (/) 

 Under the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, where a sub- 

 sale has been intimated by the purchaser to the seller, the 

 seller is not entitled to retain a horse for any separate debt 

 or obligation alleged to be due to the seller by the original 

 purchaser ; but the seller's right of retention for pa3'ment of 

 the price, or for performance of the obligations or conditions 

 of the contract of sale, or any right of retention competent to 

 the seller, except as between him and the sub-purchaser, or 

 as arising from express contract with the original purchaser, 

 is not affected by the Act. {g) 



23. Stoppage in transitu. — Stoppage in transitu is an 

 equitable extension of the right to retain possession of goods 

 sold till the price be paid, (/t) It consists in the seller's 

 recovering possession of the goods where the buyer has 



(a) MulUner v. Florence, 187S, 3 Q.B.D. 484. 

 [h) Reeves v. Capper, 1838, 5 Bing. N.C. 136. 



(c) Donald v. Suckling, 1866, 35 L.J., Q.B. 202, per Lord Blackburn. 



[d) § 20. 



(c) B. Pr. 116 ; Fleming v. Smith, 1881, 8 R. 518. 

 (/) §§ 13-18. 



[g] 19 & 20 Vict. c. 60, § 2 ; B. Pr. 1300 B. 

 {h) B.C. i. 223, etscq. 



