223 



The question of delivery is the one which most 

 usually arises in horse-dealing transactions ; and I 

 should define a delivery to be, any act whereby 

 the subsequent power of disposition over the horse 

 is transferred to the purchaser. 



It is clear that a delivery may be either actual 

 or constructive : an actual delivery is a bona fide 

 transfer of the property from hand to hand ; as 

 where the purchaser receives the horse by his 

 halter, and leads him out of the seller's stable to 

 his own. But constructive delivery is by no means 

 equally intelligible ; the purchaser may have no 

 stable, or it may not be convenient to him to re- 

 move the horse at the time when the contract is 

 made, and in the majority of instances, it is usual 

 to leave the horse till a servant can be sent to fetch 

 it: in such cases the question arises whether a 

 dehvery has been actually made; and several 

 decisions upon the subject are to be found in our 

 Reports: the first to which I shall refer, is the 

 case of Elmore v. Stone, 1 Taunton, 458 ; here the 

 seller removed the horses which he sold from his 

 sale stable to his livery stable ; but in this and in 

 nearly every other instance I shall briefly quote 

 the case, as I conclude that few of my readers will 

 have a law library at hand, and it may be conve- 

 nient even to those who have. 



