A. & S. E. Salisbury v. Stainer

Decided January 15, 1838

New York Supreme Court · decided 1838-01-15

This was an action on the case, tried at the Rensselaer circuit in September, 1835, before the Hon. James Vanderpoel, then one of the circuit judges. The plaintiffs declared for deceit in the sale of 184 bales of Italian hemp, amounting to 64,850 lbs., for which the plaintiffs paid the defendants at the rate of $210 per ton, the sum of $5775,71, besides charges for cartage. The declaration also contained counts on a warranty. The defendants pleaded the general issue.

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Decided 1838-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently March 1956

6 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1By the Court,

Bronson, J.

¶2This was not a sale by sample. Salisbury was told to examine, and did examine the hemp for himself. He inspected the bales, cut open one of them, and was at liberty to open others, had he chosen to do so. If he was not satisfied of the quality and condition of the goods, he should either have proceeded to a further examination, or provided against a possible loss by requiring a warranty. Where the purchaser has an opportunity to inspect the goods, no principle is better settled than that the seller, in the absence of fraud, is not answerable for latent defects. The rule in such cases is caveat emptor. The judge erred in charging the jury that there was an implied warranty that the inside should correspond with the outside of the bales. It is unnecessary to examine the other exceptions taken on the trial.

¶3New trial granted.