Bertrand v. Arcueil
Bertrand v. Arcueil
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I adhere to the opinion formerly adopted in this case. I consider the sale of a family of slaves as coming within the spirit and intendment of art 2518. My reasons for that view have been already expressed, and I may add, by way of practical illustration, that I feel assured that any one desiring to purchase servants, if he had an offer of three slaves bearing to each other the relation of husband and wife, parent and child, as in this case, and of three others having equal physical and other qualities, but not so related, would give a higher price for the former than the latter.
I also consider the date of the sale the controlling point of time, to which reference is to be had. If the nature of the things sold was, at the date of the sale such as to subject the contract to the right of a total rescisión, the subsequent events, adverted to by the defendant’s counsel, ought not to be permitted to affect the right. The contract was completed between the parties, at the date of the sale. The legal incidents of a contract are not to be severed from the contract itself, of which they form a part. The right of rescisión, if the things sold be
To the authorities cited in the original opinion, I may add the following from thePandects:
Hoc edicto expressum circa paria mularum. Sed et quotiescunque manifestum est quern aut non venditurum, aut non empturum fuisse nisi omnia, una venditiovideri debet, licet in singulas res sint pretia separatim constituta.
Plerumque propter morbosa mancipia etiam non morbosa redhibentur, si separan non possint sine magno incommodo, vel ad pdetatis rationem offensam. Digest, lib. 21, tit. 1, s, 35.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion originally formed by the court in this case was pronounced by
In May, 1847, the plaintiff became the purchaser at auction of three slaves, for a total price of $1100, payable at one year. They were described in the advertisement as Harry, a field hand, Hannah, his wife, and their child, Huldah. The advertisement stated—“ tous ces esclaves sont garanties des vices et maladies prévus par la loi, et sont recommandé sous tous les rapports.”
The mother and child became seriously ill two or three days after their delivery to the purchaser, and died within three weeks after the sale. The testimony satisfactorily establishes that the disease of which they died existed in both anterior to the sale; and, although there was some conflict of opinion among the professional persons examined, we think the judge below correctly concluded that it had arrived at an incurable stage in both before the sale, although probably accelerated, in the case of the mother, by a miscarriage occurring after the sale. The existence of the disease before the sale, and the death from that disease within three weeks, raise a very strong probability that it was incurable at the date of the sale. Very clear and cogent proof that it was curable should be adduced by the seller, to overthrow the presumption. See Desdunes v. Miller, 2 N. S. 53. Thompson v. Willburn, I. N. S. 460.
But it is contended that the plaintiff cannot maintain his redhibitory action, because he was aware of the existence of the disease before he accepted the slaves and gave his note for the price. That symptoms of disease were discovered by the physician employed by the plaintiff to examine the slaves is true; but there is no reason to believe that the physician, or the purchaser, were aware of its extent. Had the purchaser known the real condition of the slaves, we must suppose that he would not have made the purchase. We consider him as having believed the symptoms discovered to be temporary and not of a grave character, and as having given his note in good faith, relying not only on the war- ■ ranty implied by the law, but on the express warranty and strong recommendation hold out by the advertisement. See Hepp v. Parker, 8 N. S. 476.
We have seen that the slaves were described in the advertisement as bearing towards each other the relation of husband and wife, and parent and child, and that they were sold for a total price. The solution of the question depends upon the just interpretation of article 2518 of the Code. That article declares that “the redhibitory vice of one of several things sold together gives rise to the redhibition of all, if the things were matched, as a pair of horses or a yoke of oxen.” In construing this article we must consider its spirit, and are not to limit it to the cases literally enumerated, which are given by way of illustration. The principle announced in it is found in the roman law, Digest, Lib. 21, title 1; the examples there given are the same as stated in our Code. We are there told that if horses are sold as a match, a redhibitory vice in one gives rise to a rescisión of the entire sale; but that, if four unmatched horses are sold at a singló price, the defects of one would not be a cause of a rescisión of the entire sale; that the rule would be the same if slaves be sold together for an entire price, unless they could not be reasonably separated, as, for instance, if they were acompany of tragedians, or miners. The doctrine as explained by the commentators is, that the mere entirety of the price is not decisive; but that the enquiry must be, when the things sold are alike principal objects of the sale, whether they have been sold as making a whole together, and as being such that one would not have been sold without the other, or whether they are independent one of the other. In the former case, the redhibitory vice of one of the things sold involves the right of exercising the redhibitory action for the whole. In the latter, the action can only be maintained with regal'd to the particular thing affected with the vice. See Merlin, Repertoine, verbo Redhibitoire. Pothier, Contrátele Vente, p. 142.
Now it may be true, as argued by the defendant, that the death of the slaves Hannah and Huldah did not affect the value of the slave Harry, with reference to the purposes for which he was bought, to as great an extent as in the case of the slaves forming a company of comedians, cited in the roman law. But the spirit of the rule is applicable. Slaves constituting a family would probably labor more cheerfully and harmoniously together, and, by consequence, would be more useful than those not so related; and besides natural justice and humanity would dictate that they should be sold together. It was in this just and benevolent sense that Voet, in his commentary on the Pandects, says: Unde si duo jumenta sint vendita tanquam paria et unum in ea causa sit ut redhiberi deboat, utrumgue redhiberi potest; idemque in triga atque quadriga vendita jaris est; utiet quoties res plures separará nequeunt sine magno incommode, vel ob rationem jñetatis ; veluti, ne liberi a parentibus, ne contubernio juncti a se invicem separentur ac divellantur. Voet’s Com. Lib. 21, title 1.
The counsel for the defendant has cited the case of Andry v. Fox, 6 Martin, 696, in which judge Martin, after learned argument, held that, although several slaves be bought together and for a single price, the sale will not be rescinded for all, if any number less than the whole have any redhibitory defect. We do not consider our present opinion as conflicting with that decision. It does not appear that the slaves in that case were members of the same family. If such had been the case, it could scarcely have been overlooked by the counsel or the court.
The case of Ledoux v. Armour, which was a sale of a number of Coils of bale rope, certainly cannot be considered as covering the present case.
"We conclude, therefore, that the court below did not err, in rescinding the entire sale.
The judgment of the court (concurred in by three judges,) was finally pronounced by
After much consideration, the majority of the court are of opinion, that the interpretation given to the 2518th article of the Civil Code, in the decision heretofore rendered in this case, extends the principle announced in that article beyond its just limits. We think that both the letter and the spirit of the law forbid its application to a case like the present, where the slaves sold bear to each other the relation of husband and wife, parent and child, two of whom have died of redhibitory diseases. The article is as follows :
“ The redhibitory vice of one of several things sold together gives rise to the redhibition of all, if the things wore matched (appareillés), as a pair of horses or a yoke of oxen.”
We do not understand the correctness of so much ofthe opinion heretofore rendered, as determined that two of the slaves purchased by the plaintiff, to wit, the mother and'child, died of diseases existing at the date of the sale, to be impugned. The evidence leaves no doubt that the third slave, Harry, died of a disease contracted several months subsequent to the sale.
Under the view which we now take of the law, the loss of the slaves Hannah and Huldah, must be borne by the defendant, and that of the slave Harry by the plaintiff. But as the evidence does not enable us to determine the separate value of the slaves, the cause must be remanded, for the purpose of ascertaining the deduction to be made from the rate given for the price.
The judgment of the District Court is, therefore, reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings; the appellee paying the costs of this appeal.
Reference
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published