224 
SALE AND WARRANTY OF HORSES, 
expressions, that the existence or non-existence of a warranty is 
to be inferred.' 7 
“ But the most important part of our investigation relates to 
the extent of the warranty. We must here observe, in the first 
place, that although a warranty may be made to extend to tem¬ 
per, freedom from blemish, age, aptitude for particular work, 
and many other similar qualities, as well as to soundness; yet 
unless expressly so extended, it will be construed to apply to 
soundness alone . Thus, when an ambiguity arose from the 
insular position of the word ‘ warranted 7 in the following notice: — 
i To be s^ld, a black gelding, five years old ; has been constantly 
driven in the plough—warranted, 7 the warranty was held to ap¬ 
ply to soundness alone. 77 
“ Unsoundness is a term the exact limits of which are not 
very clearly defined. According to Lord Ellenborough, any in¬ 
firmity which renders a horse less fit for present use or con¬ 
venience, is an unsoundness. This doctrine was laid down by 
his lordship in a case which turned upon an alleged lameness, and 
wherein it was admitted by a witness for the defendant, that one 
of the fore legs had been bandaged, because it was weaker than 
the other: upon this admission, the verdict in favour of the 
plaintiff seems to have been founded; and it was then observed 
by the court, i to constitute unsoundness, it is not essential that 
the infirmity should be of a permanent nature ; it is sufficient 
if it render the animal for the time unjit jor service ; as, for in¬ 
stance, a cough, which renders it for the time less useful, and 
may ultimately prove fatal. 7 Now this decision appears to con¬ 
tradict ja prior one, in which Eyre, C. J., held, that a slight 
lameness occasioned by the horse having taken up a nail at the 
farrier's was not an unsoundness. This learned judge, in his 
observations to the jury, remarks —‘ A horse labouring under 
a temporary injury or hurt, which is capable of being speedily 
cured or removed, is not for that an unsound horse within the 
meaning of the warranty. 7 If these decisions are not to be re¬ 
garded as conflicting, one deduction ought possibly to be, that 
such slight injuries as proceed from external causes, and are witli 
moral certainty to be speedily and effectually cured, do not fall 
under the head of infirmities, which term properly comprehends 
such diseases only as may without much improbability hang by 
the animal through life, while they impair his present useful¬ 
ness. 77 
“ Cribbiting, in its incipient state, has been held to be no 
unsoundness; but when inveterate (and interfering with the 
health of the animal) it then falls within the meaning of the term. 77 
