Ward Hunt

“ A learned author says, 'If any one of the ingredients be wanting, there is no sale.' Atkinson on Sales, 5. Benjamin on Sales, p. 1, note, and p. 2, says, 'To constitute a valid sale, there must be (1) parties competent to contract; (2) mutual assent; (3) a thing, the absolute or general property in which is transferred from the seller to the buyer, (4) a price in money, paid or promised.'
How, then, can there be a sale of seven hundred and five packs of iron, unless there be a purchase of it? How can there be a seller, unless there be likewise a purchaser? ”

“ A man cannot sell his chattel by a perfected sale, and still remain its owner. There may be an offer to sell, subject to acceptance, which would bind the party offering, and not the other party until acceptance. The same may be said of an optional purchase upon a sufficient consideration. There is also a class of cases under the Statute of Frauds where it is held that the party who has signed the contract may be held chargeable upon it, and the other party, who has not furnished that evidence against himself, will not be thus chargeable. ”

“ White & Hazzard, who signed the instrument, are proved to have been the authorized agents of the plaintiff to sell, and of the defendants to buy; and their signature, it is conceded, is the signature both of the defendants and of the plaintiff.
The objection is to the sufficiency of the contract itself. The written memorandum recites that Butler & Co. had sold the iron to the defendants at a price named; but it is said there is no recital that the defendants had bought the iron. There is a contract of sale, it is argued, but not a contract of purchase. ”