Modern writers have added, however, the
characteristically modern qualification, that the purchase must
be bona fide, and without notice. /3/ It may be answered, that
the proposition extends to gifts as well as to sales by the
bailee, that there is no such condition in the old books, and
that it is contrary to the spirit of the strict doctrines of the
common law to read it in. No lawyer needs to be told that, even
so qualified, this is no [170] longer the law. /1/ The doctrine
of the Year Books must be regarded as a survival from the
primitive times when we have seen the same rule in force, unless
we are prepared to believe that in the fifteenth century they had
a nicer feeling for the rights of bona fide purchasers than at
present.
The next point in logical order would be the degree of
responsibility to which the bailee was held as towards his bailor
who intrusted him. But for convenience I will consider first the
explanation which was given of the bailee's right of action
against third persons wrongfully taking the goods from his
possession. The inverted explanation of Beaumanoir will be
remembered, that the bailee could sue because he was answerable
over, in place of the original rule, that he was answerable over
so strictly because only he could sue.
Pages:
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224