Market Overt - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition market-overt

Definition :

Market overt, an open or public market. Contracts of sale which transfer the property as against a real owner though not the seller are binding, if made according to the following rules.--(1)The sale must be in a place that is open, so that anyone who passes may see it, and that is proper for the sale of such goods; (2) it must be an actual sale for a valuable consideration; (3) the buyer must not know that the seller has a wrongful possession of the goods sold; (4) the sale must no tbe fradulent between two to bar a third person of his right; (5) there must be a sale and a contract by persons able to contract; (6) the contract must be originally and wholly in the market overt; (7) toll ought to be paid where required by statute; (8) the sale ought not to be in the night, though, if the sale be made in the night, it may bind the parties, The Case of Market Overt, 5 Rep 83; and see Hargreave v. Spink, (1892) 1 QB 25; and Ardath Tobacco Co. Ltd. v. Ocker, 1930 TLR 177, distinguishing a sale to, from a sale by, the trader.

By s. 22 of the (English) Sale of Goods Act, 1893, 'where goods are sold in market overt, according to the custom of the market, the buyer acquires a good title to the goods, provided he buys them in good faith and without notice of any defect or want of title on the part of the seller,' but that s. does not apply to the sale of horses (see that title), or to Scotland, and there is no corresponding law in Scotland.

By a special custom of the City of London, goods on sale to the public in shops to which the public have general access on the usual shopping days, between sunrise and sunset, are in market overt.

Although the true owner may lose his property by a sale in market overt, he still has his remedies, e.g., for conversion against the seller, Peer v. Humphrey, (1835) 2 Ad & El 495.