In conveyancing. The final and absolute transfer of a deed, properly executed, to the grantee, or to some person for his use, in such manner that it cannot be recalled by the grantor. Black v. Shreve, 13 N. J. Eq. 461; Kirk v. Turner, 16 N. C. 14.
In the law of sales. The tradition or transfer of the possession of personal property from one person to another
In medical jurisprudence. The act of a woman giving birth to her offspring. Blake v. Junkins, 35 Me. 433.
Absolute and conditional delivery. An absolute delivery of a deed, as distinguished from conditional delivery or delivery in escrow, is one which is complete upon the actual transfer of the instrument from the possession of the grantor. Dyer v. Skadan, 128 Mich. 348. S7 .N. W. 277. 92 Am. St. Rep. 461. A conditional delivery of a deed is one which passes the deed from the possession of the grantor, but is not to be completed by possession or the grantee, or a third person as his agent, until the happening of a specified event. Dyer v. Skadan. 128 Mich. 348, 87 N. W. 277, 92 Am. St. Rep. 461; Schmidt v. Deegan, 69 Wis. 300, 34 N. W. 83.
Actual and constructive. In the law of sales, actual delivery consists in the giving real possession of the thing sold to the vendee or his servants or special agents who are identified with him in law and represent him. Constructive delivery is a general term, comprehending all those acts which, although not truly conferring a real possession of the thing sold on the vendee, have been held, by construction of law, equivalent to acts of real delivery. In this sense constructive delivery includes symbolic delivery and all those traditiones fictce which have been admitted into the law as sufficient to vest the absolute property in the vendee and bar the rights of lien and stoppage in transitu, such as marking and setting apart the goods as belonging to the vendee, charging him with warehouse rent, etc. Bolin v. Huffnagle. 1 Rawle (Pa.) 19. A constructive delivery of personalty takes place when the goods are set apart and notice given to the person to whom they are to be delivered (The Titania, 131 Fed. 229, 65 C. C. A. 215), or when, without actual transfer of the goods or their symbol, the conduct of the parties is such as to be inconsistent with any other supposition than that there has been a change in the nature of the holding. Swafford v. Spratt, 93 Mo. App. 631, 67 S. W. 701; Holliday v. White, 33 Tex. 459.
Symbolical delivery. The constructive delivery of the subject matter of a sale, where it is cumbersome or inaccessible, by the actual delivery of some article which is conventionally accepted as the symbol or representative of it, or which renders access to it possible, or which is the evidence of the purchaser’s title to it; as the key of a warehouse, or a bill of lading of goods on shipboard. Winslow v. Fletcher, 53 Conn. 390, 4 Atl. 250; Miller v. Lacey, 7 Houst. (Del.) a 30 Atl. 640. Delivery bond. A bond given upon the seizure of goods (as under the revenue laws) conditioned for their restoration to the defendant, or the payment of their value, if so adjudged. Delivery order. An order addressed, in England, by the owner of goods to a person holding them on his behalf, requesting him to deliver them to a person named in the order. Delivery orders are chiefly used in the case of goods held by dock companies, wharfingers, etc.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
(A) conveyancing. The transferring of a deed from the grantor to the grantee, in such a manner as to deprive him of the right to recall it; Dev. Eq. R. 14 or the delivery may be made and accepted by an attorney. This is indispensably necessary to the validity of a deed; 9 Shepl. 569 2 Harring. 197; 16 Verm. 563; except it be the deed of a corporation, which, however, must be executed under their common seal. Watkin’s Prin. Con. 300. But although, as a general rule, the delivery of a deed is essential to its perfection, it is never averred in pleading. 1 Wms. Saund. Rep. 291, note Arch. Dig. of Civ. Pl. 138. 2. As to the form, the delivery may be by words without acts; as, if the deed be lying upon a table, and the grantor says to the grantee, take that as my deed, it will be a sufficient delivery; or it may be by acts without words, and therefore a dumb man may deliver a deed. 3. A delivery may be either absolute, Is when it is delivered to the grantor himself; or it may be conditional, that is, to a third person to keep until some condition shall have been performed by the grantee, and then it is called an escrow. 4. The formula, I deliver this as my act and deed, which means the actual delivery of the deed by the grantor into the hands or for the use of the grantee, is incongruous, not to say absurd, when applied to deeds which cannot in their nature be delivered to any person; as deeds of revocation, appointment, under a power where uses to unborn children and the like, if in fact such instruments, though sealed, can be properly called deeds, i.e. writings sealed and delivered. (B) contracts. The transmitting the possession of a thing from one person into the power and possession of another. 2. Originally, delivery was a clear and unequivocal act of giving possession, accomplished by placing the subject to be transferred in the hands of the buyer or his avowed agent, or in their respective warehouses, vessels, carts, and the like. This delivery was properly considered as the true badge of transferred property, as importing full evidence of consent to transfer; preventing the appearance of possession in the transferrer from continuing the credit of property unduly; and avoiding uncertainty and risk in the title of the acquirer. 3. The complicated transactions of modern trade, however, render impossible a strict adherence to this simple rule. It often happens that the purchaser of a commodity cannot take immediate possession and receive the delivery. The bulk of the goods; their peculiar situation, as when they are deposited in public custody for duties, or in the hands of a manufacturer for the purpose of having some operation of his art performed upon them, to fit them for the market the distance they are from the house; the frequency of bargains concluded by correspondence between distant countries, and many other obstructions, frequently render it impracticable to give or to receive actual delivery. In these and such like cases, something short of actual delivery has been considered sufficient to transfer the property. 4. In sales, gifts, and other contracts, where the party intends to transfer the property, the delivery must be made with the intent to enable the receiver to obtain dominion over it. The delivery may be actual, by putting the thing sold in the hands or possession of the purchaser; or it may be symbolical, as where a man buys goods which are in a room, the receipt of the keys will be sufficient. 5. There is sometimes considerable difficulty in ascertaining the particular period when the property in the goods sold passes from the vendor to the vendee; and what facts amount to an actual delivery of the goods. Certain rules have been established, and the difficulty is to apply the facts of the case. 6. 1. Where goods are sold, if nothing remains to be done on the part of the seller as between him and the buyer, before the article is to be delivered, the property has passed. 7. 2. Where a chattel is made to order, the property therein is not vested in the quasi vendee, until finished and delivered, though he has paid for it. 1 Taunt. 318. 8. 3. The criterion to determine whether there has been a delivery on a sale, is to consider whether the vendor still retains, in that character, a right over. the property. 2 H. Blackst, R. 316. 9. 4. Where a part of the goods sold by an entire contract, has been taken possession of by the vendee, that shall be deemed a taking possession of the whole. 2 H. Bl. R. 504; 1 New Rep. 69. Such partial delivery is not a delivery of the whole, so as to vest in the vendee the entire property in the whole, where some act, other than the payment of the price, is necessary to be per