Kinney v. Cay

Minnesota Supreme Court
Kinney v. Cay, 39 Minn. 210 (Minn. 1888)
39 N.W. 140; 1888 Minn. LEXIS 76
Gileillah, Mitchell

Kinney v. Cay

Opinion of the Court

Gileillah, C. J.

Section 15, chapter 39, Gen. St. 1878, applies by its terms to oral as well as written contracts of sale the conditions of which are that the title or ownership of the property remains in the vendor. Such conditional sales, where the property is delivered to the purchaser, and he is thereby given the appearance and indicia of title, ■have been fruitful of mischief to creditors and bona fide purchasers .and mortgagees of the first purchaser. The statute, for the protection of such, requires, therefore, that the contract containing the condition, if it be in writing, or a copy thereof, or, if it be oral, a mem-orándum expressing the terms and conditions thereof, shall be filed. The policy of the statute is the same as that which, for the same purpose, requires a chattel mortgage or a copy of it to be filed. If, then, -as appellant claims, the sale by him to Wright, of the colt, was a conditional one, so that the absolute title did not pass, the case comes within the statute cited; and, if respondent purchased from Wright in good faith, he is protected by it. As in its charge to the jury the court stated the law differently, it was right in granting a mew trial.

Order affirmed.

Concurring Opinion

Mitchell, J.,

(concurring.) I concur in the result, on the ground that there was no evidence that the sale was conditional; all that • was said about trading back in a certain contingency being a mere ■gratuitous promise, made by the vendee after the bargain was closed and the property delivered. But I am not prepared to say that the statute referred to applies to a case of this kind. I am rather in-*212dined to think that it was intended to apply only to eases where the title of the property is retained by the vendor as security for something to be paid or given by the vendee as the consideration or purchase price of the property.

Reference

Full Case Name
A. G. Kinney v. Henry Cay
Status
Published