A treatise of the principal grounds and maximes of the lawes of this nation very usefull and commodious for all students and such others as desire the knowledge and understandings of the laws / written by that most excellent and learned expositor of the law, W.N.

CHAP. XLII.

How Chattels personal may be bargained, sold, exchanged, lent, and restored.

AContract is properly where a man for his mony shall have by the assent of another, certain goods, or some other profit at the time of the con∣tract, or after.

In all Bargaines, Sales, Contracts, Promi∣ses, and Agreements, there must be quid pro quo, presently, except day be given expresly for the payment, or else it is nothing but com∣munication.

If a man do agree for a price of wares, he may not carry them away before he hath paid for them, if he have not day expresly given him to pay for them.

But the Merchant shall retain the wares until he be paid for them, and if the other take them, the Merchant may have an action of trespass, or an action of debt for the mo∣ney at his choice.

If the bargain be that you shall give me ten pound for my Horse, and you do give me a penny in earnest, which I do accept: This is a perfect bargain, you shall have the Horse by an action of the Case, and I shall have the money by an action of debt.

If I say the price of a Cow is four pounds, and you say you will give me four pounds, and doe not pay me presently, you may not have her afterwards, except I will; for it is no contract. But if you goe presently to telling of your money, if I sell her to another, you shal have your action of the Case against me.

If I buy one hundred loads of Wood to be taken in such a Wood at the appointment of the vendor, if he upon request will not as∣signe them unto me. I may take them, or I may sell them: But if a stranger doe cut down any part of the trees, I may not take them; But I may supply my Grantee of the residue, or have my action of the Case.

If the bargain be, that I shall give you ten pounds for such a Wood, if I like it upon the view thereof, this is a bargaine at my plea∣sure vpon my view; and if the day be agreed upon, if I disagree before the day, if I agree at the day the bargain is perfect, although afterwards I do disagree. But I may not cut the Wood before I have paid for it; if I do, an action of Trespasse will lie against me, and if you sell it to another, an action of Trespass on the Case will lie against you.

If I sell my horse for money, I may keep him untill I am paid, but I cannot have an a∣ction of debt untill he be delivered, yet the

property of the horse is by the bargain in the bargainer, or buyer; but if he do pre∣sently tender me my money, and I do refuse it, he may take the horse, or have an action of detainment. And if the horse die in my stable between the bargain and the delivery, I may have an action of debt for my money, because by the bargain the property was in the buyer.

If a Deed be made of Goods and chattels, and delivered to the use of the Donee, the property of the Goods and Chattels are in the Donee presently: before any entry, or a∣greement, the Donee may refuse them if he will.

If I take a horse of another mans, and sell him; and the owner take him again: I may have an action of Debt for the money, for the bargain was perfect by the delivery of the horse, & caveat Emptor. Every Con∣tract importeth in it self an assumption: for when one doth agree to pay money, or deli∣ver a thing upon consideration, he doth as it were, assume and promise to pay and deliver the same, and therefore when one selleth any goods to another, and agreeth to deliver them at a day to come: and the other in considera∣tion thereof, agreeth to pay so much money on the delivery, or after, in this Case, he may

have an action of Debt, or an action on the Case upon the assumption.

The duty to resign an Action personal, may not be apportioned; as if I sell my Horse, and another mans for ten pounds, who taketh his Horse againe, I shall have all the money.

If a man retained a servant for 10.l. per an∣num, and he depart within the year, he can have no wages: if it were to be paid at two Feasts, and the man after the first Feast die, he shall have wages but for the first Feast; there∣fore men take order for it in their Wils.

By a Contract made in a Faire or Market, the property is altered; Except it be to the King; so that the buyer know not of the for∣mer property, and doe pay tole, and enter it; and those things as thereupon ought to be done, it must be on the Market, and at the place where such things are usually sold, as Place at the Goldsmiths stall, and not in his Inner shop.

In exchange of a Horse for a Horse, or such like, the bargaine is good without giving of day, or delivery.

If a thing be promised by way of recom∣pence for a thing that is past; it is rather an ac∣cord than a contract; & upon an accord, there lieth no account, but he unto whom the pro∣mise is made, may have charge, by reason of

the promise, which he hath also performed; then he shall have an account for the thing promised, though he that made the promise have no profit thereby; as if a man say to ano∣ther man, heal such a poor man, or make such a high-way, &c.

The intent of the party shall be taken ac∣cording to the Law, as if a man retain a ser∣vant, and do not say one year, or how long he shall serve him, it shall be taken for one a yeer, according to the Statute.

In all contracts he that speaketh obscurely, or ambiguously is said to speak at his own pe∣ril, and such speeches are to be taken strong∣ly against himself.