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23 Vt. 568

Root v. Lord

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided August 15, 1851

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1851-08-15

Trover for a cow. Plea the general issue, and trial by jury, June Term, 1851, — Poland, J., presiding. .About the first of June, 1848, the defendant sold to the plaintiff the cow in question for $20,00, one half of which was to be paid in July, and the residue in the ensuing autumn; but it was agreed between them, that the cow should remain the property of the defendant, until the plaintiff paid the price.

Relies on Marston v. Baldwin · West v. Bolton

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1851-08-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently October 1923

7 state decisions

2018511860187018801890190019101920decided

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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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Redfield, J.

¶2The only question in this case, which has not been already settled in this state by the case of West v. Bolton, 4 Vt. 558, and other cases following that, is in regard to the effect of the judgment, in an action of book account, for the price. And this, we think, can make no difference.

¶3The most, which it could be claimed is implied in the judgment, is, that the defendant had sold and delivered the cow ; that is all which is requisite, in order to sustain the action and recover the judgment. And this is no more than what the original contract stipulated, — no more than what existed from the time of the contract until the return of the cow. And we do not think., that during this time, the defendant would have been precluded from maintaining an action for the price of the cow, or that a judgment would have vested the title, absolutely in the plaintiff.

¶4The lien, which the defendant retained upon the cow, is very little different, in effect, although somewhat different in form, from that of collateral security for a debt, by the way of the pledge, or mortgage, of personal property. And in such case it was never doubted, that the creditor might pursue both the debt and the pledge, until he obtained security.

¶5And the fact, that the property had been left in the defendant’s possession, without his consent, could make no difference; for if that were so, it would be equivalent to giving the plaintiff to gain an *571advantage, by leaving the property with the defendant'against his will, when no such provision is contained in the original contract.

¶6The case of Smith v. Field, 4 T. R. 402, only decides, that the parties to a contract of sale may rescind the contract by consent,— which was never doubted. But in the present case there is no evidence of such consent. And farther, that if the vendor attach the goods as the property of the vendee, he is estopped to affirm, that they had rescined the sale, — which is no doubt just and reasonable, but can have no application to the present case. The case of Marston v. Baldwin, 17 Mass. 606, only goes to show, that, in case of a conditional sale, the delivery did not make the title absolute, and that the vendor may pursue the property, without showing the contract of sale rescinded. This, so far as it applies to the present case, would seem quite as much to favor the claim of the defendant, as of the plaintiff. 'Judgment affirmed.

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