Sale And Return

When goods are sent from a manufacturer or wholesale dealer to a retail trader, in the hope that he may purchase them, with the understanding that what he may choose to take he shall have as on a contract of sale, and what he does not take he will retain as a consignee for the owner, the goods are said to have been sent on "sale and return." The goods taken by the receiver as on sale will be considered as sold, and the title to them is vested in the receiver of them. The goods he does not buy are considered as a deposit in the hands of the receiver of them, and the title is in the person who sent them. 1 Bell, Comm. {5th Ed.) 268.

This is a species of contract by which the seller (usually a manufacturer or wholesaler) delivers a quantity of goods to the buyer, on the understanding that, if the latter should desire to retain or use or resell any portion of such goods, he will consider such part as having been sold to him, and will pay their price, and the balance he will return to the seller, dr hold them, as bailee, subject to his order. Sturm v. Boker, 150 U. S. 312, 14 Sup. Ct. 99, 37 I Ed. 1093; Haskins v. Dem, 19 Utah, 89, 56 Pac. 953; Hickman v. Shimp, 109 Pa. 16.

Defined under Sale in Black's Law Dictionary.