caveat emptor
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 77 U.S. 383 - Barnard v. Kellogg · 1870Most cited · 181 citing opinions
in sales of personal property, in the absence of express warranty, where the buyer has an opportunity to inspect the commodity, and the seller is guilty of no fraud, and is neither the manufacturer nor grower of the article he sells, the maxim of caveat emptor applies
How the Supreme Court has restated “caveat emptor”
Each Supreme Court definition of “caveat emptor,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “caveat emptor”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “caveat emptor” — 352 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1824–1870
- ORIGINAL
In sales of this description particularly, and generally in all judicial sales, the rule caveat emptor must necessarily apply, from the nature of the transaction; there being no one to whom recourse can be had for indemnity against any loss which may be sustained.
judicial sales
In selling the warrant, the State enters into contract no farther than that the purchaser shall have that quantity of vacant land if he can find it. And when the patent issues, it is to the patentee, if to any one, that the fraud is imputable, if the land be not vacant. The State never intends to grant the lands of another; and where the grantee is ignorant of the previous patent, the maxim, caveat emptor, is emphatically applicable to this species of contract.
grant from sovereign
The common law, unlike the civil law, does not imply a warranty from a full price. Where there is neither fraud nor warranty, and the buyer receives and retains the goods, without objection, he waives the right to object afterwards, and is finally concluded. In such cases the rule of caveat emptor applies.