MARKET OVERT. An open or public market ; that is, a place appointed by law or custom for the sale of goods and chattels at stated times in public. "An open, public, and legally constituted market." Jervis, C. J., 9 J. ,Scott 601; 18 C. B. 599. As to what is a legally constituted market overt, see 5 C. B. N. S. 299. In 5 B. & S. 313, the doc trine of market overt was much discussed by C. J., and the opinion express ed that a sale could not be considered as made in market overt, "unless the gdods were exposed in the market for sale, and the whole transaction begun, continued, and completed in the open market ; so as to give the fullest opportunity to the man goods have been taken to make pursuit of them, and prevent their being sold." The market-place was the only market overt out of the city of London, but in London every shop was a market overt ; 5 Co. 83 ; F. Moore 300. Where a sale took place in a show room above a store, access to which was only obtainable by special permission, it was not a sale in market overt ; [1892] 1 Q. B. 25. In London, every day except Sunday was market-day. In the country, particular days were fixed for market-days by charter or prescription ; 2 Bla. Com. 449.
All contracts for any thing vendible, made in market overt, shall be binding ; and sales pass the property, though stolen, if it be an open and proper place for the kind of goods, there be an actual sale for valuable consideration, no notice of wrongful posses sion, no collusion, parties able to contract, a contract originally and wholly in the mar ket overt, toll be paid, if requisite, by stat ute, and the contract be made between sun and sun ; 5 Co. 83 b. But sale in market overt does not bind the king, though it does infants, etc.; Co. 2d Inst. 713 ; 2 Bla. Corn. 449; Corn. Dig. Market (E) ; Bacon, Abr. Ftara and Markets (E) ; 5 B. & Ald. 624. A sale by sample is not a sale in market overt ; 5 B. & S. 313; but a sale to a shop keeper in London is ; 11 Ad. & E. 326; but see 5 B. & S. 313.
The English Sales of Goods Act of 1893 provides : "Where goods are sold in market overt according to the usage of the market, the buyer acquie6s a title to the goods pro vided he buys them in good faith and with out notice of any defect or want of title on the part of the seller."
A market overt 'is a public market or fair, legally held by grant from the crown or by prescription or by authority of parliament. By the custom of London every shop in the city in which goods are publicly offered for sale is market overt on all days of the week except Sundays and holidays from sunrise to sunset. The sale must take place in that part of 'the shop in which the public' are or dinarily admitted; [1892] 1 Q. B. 25.
If the goods be stolen and the thief is prosecuted to conviction by the owner, the property revests in him notwithstanding an intermediate sale in market overt. But if the purchaser parts with the goods or con sumes them before such conviction, the owner has no cause , of action against him, even though he does so with notice of the theft. But where possession of the goods has been obtained from the owner by fraud `.or other wrongful means, not amounting to theft, the property will not revest in the owner by rea son only of the conviction of the offender.
Under statute, where horses are sold in market overt to a bona fide purchaser for value, the horses must have been exposed in the open market for one hour between 10 A. M. and sunset, and a minute description of the purchaser, etc., entered in the shop keeper's book ; and the owner can recover the horse within six months of the sale by tendering the purchaser the price which he paid for it. 1 Odgers, Com. Law 19. An auction room is not a shop within the meaning of, the custom of the city of London, accord ing to which a sale in a shop in that city of such goods as are usually sold in it is a sale in market overt ; [1911] 2 K. B. 1031 (C. A.), where market overt is dealt with historically by Scrutton, J.; see 45 Am. L. Rev. 890.
There is no law recognizing the effect of a sale in market overt in the United States; Easton v. Worthington, 5 S. & R. (Pa.) 130; Wheelwright v. Depeyster, 1 Johns. (N. Y.) 480, 3 Am. Dec. 345 ; Bryant v. Whitcher, 52 N. H. 158; Coombs v. Gorden, 59 Me. 111; Dame v. Baldwin, 8 Mass. 521; Roland v. Gundy, 5 Ohio 203 ; Heacock v. Walker, 1 Tyler (Vt.) 341; Ventress v. Smith, 10 Pet. (U. S.) 161, 9 L. Ed. 382 ; 2 Kent 324 ; 2 Tud. Lead. Cas. 734, where the subject is fully treated.