Sale is an exchange of land or goods for money. Sale of Land.—The 3d section of the Statute of Frauds (29 Car. II. chap. 2) requires contracts for the sale of land to be in writing, signed by the party to be charged therewith. Such a contract, even when those conditions are not complied with, will be specifically enforced, when it has been part performed by the party seeking relief. Such part performance, according to the phrase, takes the case out of the statute. Certain conditions of sale are usually put forth on the part of the vendor, and under them the sale is conducted. The purchaser is supplied with an abstract of title going back for forty years. Then the deeds conveying the estate are prepared and signed, the money is handed over, and the purchase completed. Before this, however, the purchaser is entitled to the estate and the vendor to the purchase-money, but the vendor has a lien for the unpaid price. The Real Property Limitation Act, 1874, gives, in the absence of fraud, a person who has held real property undisturbed for twelve years an indefeasible title thereto. The method of sale is somewhat different according as the land is freehold, leasehold, or copyhold—i.e. forming part of a manor. In the last case the copyholder surrenders the land into the hands of his lord, who thereupon admits the alienee. If the property is in Middlesex, or Yorkshire, or Kingston-upon-Hull, the conveyance is registered, and instruments dealing with the same subjects rank according to date of registration. Recent acts give power to limited owners (as tenants for life, &c.) to sell the land they occupy; but they must act under the sanction of the court, and apply the purchase-money as directed. In Scotland no contract for the sale of land is binding without writing. There is no copyhold, and leasehold is rare. There is a very perfect system of registration.
Sale of Goods.—By the 17th section of the Statute of Frauds no contract for sale of goods of the price of £10 or upward is valid unless the buyer receive and accept part of the goods sold, or pay part of the price, or the agreement be reduced to writing and signed by the parties. The title of buyer is no better than that of a seller, so that, e.g., if you purchase a watch from a man not its owner, the true owner can make you deliver it up without compensation. But there are some exceptions: thus, an agent under the Factors Acts, who may sometimes give a buyer a better title than he has himself; also goods bought in market overt become the absolute property of the purchaser, with the undernoted exception. In London every shop on a week-day is a market overt; elsewhere, only a market held at a regular time and place. The sale of horses is regulated by certain special provisions, chiefly contained in a statute of Philip and Mary. Even if goods be sold in market overt, on the subsequent conviction of the thief the property will revert to the true owner. On sale the duty of the seller is to deliver the goods, but not to send or convey them. The buyer is bound to accept and pay for what he has ordered. Caveat emptor, by which words is meant that the buyer takes an article at his own risk, is the rule, but a good many exceptions are admitted. The seller has a lien on the goods as long as the purchase-money is unpaid, and in case of the buyer's insolvency he may stop them in transit. In Scotland the chief theoretical point of difference is that, whilst in England the completion of the contract of sale vests the property of the goods in the buyer, in Scotland he has only a right to demand their delivery; but owing to various statutory provisions the difference is not of much practical importance. Also, the contract may be entirely verbal, and the doctrine of sales in market overt is not recognised. Among many books on the subject of sale that of Benjamin (4th ed. 1888) is the most complete. See also BILL OF SALE, CONTRACT, WARRANTY.
In the United States the sale of land is simplified by registration, but the law is based on that of England. So also with the sale of goods; only the law as to market overt is not recognised in the States, nor is warranty of title carried so far as in England.