GOODS SOLD AND DELIVERED

This phrase is frequently used in actions of assumpsit, and the sale and delivery of goods are the foundation of the action. When a plaintiff declares for goods sold and delivered, he is required to prove, first, the contract of sale; secondly, the delivery of the goods, or such disposition of them as will be equivalent to it; and, thirdly, their value. 11 . Shepl. 505. These will be separately considered. 2. 1. The contract of sale may be express, as where the purchaser actually bought the goods on credit, and promised to pay for them at a future time; or implied, where from his acts the defendant manifested an intention to buy them; as, for example, when one takes goods by virtue of a sale made by a person who has no authority to sell, and the owner afterwards affirms the contract, he may maintain an action for goods sold and delivered. 12 Pick. 120. Again, if the goods come, to the hands of the defendant tortiously, and are converted by him to his own use, the plaintiff may waive the tort, and recover as for goods sold and delivered. 3. 2. The delivery must be made in accordance with the terms of the sale, for if there has not been such delivery no action can be maintained. 4.3. The plaintiff must prove the value of the goods; where there is an express agreement as to their value, be established by evidence, but where there is no such express agreement, the value of the goods at the time of sale must be proved. Coxe, 261. And the purchaser of goods cannot defend, against an action for the purchase money, by showing that the property was of no value. 8 Port. 133. 5. To support an action for goods sold and delivered, it is indispensable that the goods should have been sold for money, and that the credit on which they were sold should have expired. But where the goods have been sold on a credit to be paid for by giving a note or bill, and the purchaser does not give it according to contract, although the seller cannot recover in assumpsit for goods sold and delivered till the credit has expired, yet he may proceed immediately for a breach of the agreement. 21 Wend. 175. 6. When goods have been sold to be paid for partly in money, and partly in goods to be delivered to the vendor, the plaintiff must declare specially, and he cannot recover on the common count for goods sold and delivered.