"Note that where a man's chattel is lost (ou la chosse de un home
est endire), he may count that he [the finder] tortiously detains
it, &c., and tortiously for this that whereas he lost the said
thing on such a day, &c., he [the loser] came on such a day, &c.
[169] (la vynt yl e en jour), and found it in the house of such
an one, and told him, &c., and prayed him to restore the Sing,
but that he would not restore it, &c., to his damage, &c.; and if
he, &c. In this case, the demandant must prove (his own hand the
twelfth) that he lost the thing." /1/
Assuming that as the first step we find a procedure kindred to
that of the early German folk-laws, the more important question
is whether we find any principles similar to those which have
just been explained. One of these, it will be remembered,
concerned wrongful transfer by the bailee. We find it laid down
in the Year Books that, if I deliver goods to a bailee to keep
for me, and he sells or gives them to a stranger, the property is
vested in the stranger by the gift, and I cannot maintain
trespass against him; but that I have a good remedy against the
bailee by writ of detinue (for his failure to return the goods).
/2/ These cases have been understood, and it would seem on the
whole rightly, not merely to deny trespass to the bailor, but any
action whatever.
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