Hunter Construction Co. v. Lyons

Citations

• 233 Pa. 561
• 82 A. 761
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 872

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Sale—Delivery of possession — Constructive delivery.</p> <p>1. Where it appears that personal property which is the subject of a sheriff’s interpleader had belonged to the defendant in the execution and is found by the sheriff in his apparently continuing and uninterrupted possession and use, the burden is upon a person claiming through him of proving by sufficient evidence at least the constructive delivery of it.</p> <p>2. In passing upon the question of the sufficiency of the constructive delivery of a chattel sold, the character of the property, the use to be made of it, the nature and object of the transaction, the position of the parties and the usages of the trade or business must be taken into consideration.</p> <p>3. When constructive delivery of possession is relied upon as sufficient under the rule requiring change of possession from the vendor to the vendee, such delivery will not be held insufficient as a matter of law if the purchase was in good faith and for a valuable consideration, followed by acts intending to transfer the possession as well as the title, and the vendee assumes such control of the property as to reasonably indicate a change of ownership.</p> <p>4. Where nothing has been done by the vendee to reasonably indicate to all concerned the fact of the change of ownership, it is the duty of the court to pronounce a mere symbolic delivery to be insufficient, but where there is evidence of such assumption of control as to reasonably indicate a change of ownership, it is for the jury to say whether it was ,bona fide or merely colorable, and whether it was enough to give notice to the world.</p> <p>5. On the trial of a feigned issue under a sheriff’s interpleader to determine title to a steam roller, stone crusher and other implements, ¡the' plaintiff in the execution is entitled to binding instructions in his favor where the uncontradicted evidence is that the defendant in the execution, an individual contractor, who was also the