Action does not lie against an auctioneer for selling a horse at the highest price bid for him, contrary to the owner’s express directions not to let him go under a larger sum named. Otherwise, if the owner had directed the auctioneer to set the horse up at such a particular price ; and not lower. The auctioneer might, after the bidding by the owner, have sold to the plaintiff on his first bidding : how then can the auctioneer’s authority have been countermanded?
The bidding by the owner of an item being sold at auction was, in law, fraudulent, and not a bidding at all.
Citations:
[1776] EngR 25, (1776) 1 Cowp 395, (1776) 98 ER 1150
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Warlow v Harrison QBD 25-Nov-1858
Whether Auctioneer liable to bidder – vendor’s bid
Three following horses were advertised for sale at auction being the property of a gentleman and sold without reserve. The auctioneer had knocked one down as sold for 61 guineas, but the bid was from the owner. The plaintiff sued the auctioneer, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Agency
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.373292