Williams v. Sayers
Williams v. Sayers
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a replevin suit, brought by Williams, for twenty-six bales of cotton. J. H. Stewart, as executor, had forty-nine bales of cotton stored with the Clarksdale Compress Company,
A suit by replevin did not lie in this case. It is a rule of law that, as between the seller and the buyer, the sale of property is not complete, so as to pass the title to the buyer, while anything remains to be done between them in relation to the property, whether to ascertain and identify the property or to fix the price to be paid for it. What Williams bought was not the forty-nine bales of cotton at the Clarksdale compress warehouse, but the merchantable cotton in said forty-nine bales of cotton. The merchantable cotton in said forty-nine bales was commingled with unmerchantable or damaged cotton. The good cotton was to be separated from the damaged cotton, and the good cotton was thereafter, at considerable expense, separated from the damaged cotton, and was rebaled by the compress company, and for this rebaled cotton this suit was brought. The contract, therefore, did not evidence a completed sale, and Williams had no title to sustain the action brought by him. Story on Sales (3d ed.), sec. 296 et seq.
The judgment of the owcwit court is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.